Aflac Severs Ties With Duck-Voice Gottfried After Remarks on Japan Tsunami

[underpants]

Source: Bloomberg

Aflac Inc. (AFL), the biggest seller of supplemental insurance, fired comedian Gilbert Gottfried, the voice of its duck mascot in the U.S., after comments he made about tsunami victims in Japan, the firm’s biggest market.

“Gilbert’s recent comments about the crisis in Japan were lacking in humor and certainly do not represent the thoughts and feelings of anyone at Aflac,” said Michael Zuna, senior vice president and chief marketing officer, in a statement today from the Columbus, Georgia-based insurer.

Gottfried posted messages on Twitter that made light of the deadly flooding in Japan, the Daily Mail reported on its website. Aflac launched the duck campaign in 2000 to elevate awareness of its supplemental insurance, according to a July 2010 statement from the company. The duck had appeared in 50 television commercials, the insurer said at the time.

“Aflac will immediately set plans in motion to conduct a nationwide casting call to find a new voice of the iconic Aflac Duck,” the insurer said in today’s statement. “It should be noted that Gilbert Gottfried is not the voice of the Aflac Duck in Japan.”



Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-14/aflac-fires-gottfried-voice-of-its-duck-mascot-after-remarks-on-tsunami.html

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SF Gate has some more really horrible tweets by Gottfried
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/abraham/detail?entry_id=85015

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

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[Steerpike]

2. hard to put a happy face on this...

Everytime I think about this I come close to tears.

[FBaggins]

5. But that's what comedy is

With the exception of puns... They are an attempt to deal with pain.

[Bardley]

13. he failed to understand what business he was in

and that was, insurance company mascott, not comedian - he was free to engage in comedy as a sideline or hobby as long as it did not conflict with his day job, insurance company mascott

i'm not ordinarely sympathetic to insurance companies, i've delt with a more than a few who have been total slime

but the wrong comment from a mascott can have catastrophic financial consequences in a situation like this - how will it affect juries in claims disputes processing what could be at least hundreds of thousands of claims?

to took the job and cashed the check, then screwed over his client, AFLAC

[PatrynXX]

3. he is a comedian. thats what they do.

kinda like the original Geico gekko. lose the voice lost the point. political correctness run amok..... Gilbert isn't exactly clean speech. Humor is the best medicine. no matter how tragic. albeit why is the media so chick not to actually post what he said. ? what everyone scared about posting what he said? o_O was about to send aflac a nasty note on free speech but alas the network cut out. zzzzzz I think you need a bigger box. no you want Geico not gekko zzzzz... Wisconsin rights are being taken away does one look pissed off and punch someone? no, there be smiles dancing and pounding of drumbs.. Live a little.

[KharmaTrain]

7. There's This Thing Called Timing...

While comedy sometimes needs to cut to be humorous, there's also something to be said about when you say it and to whom. This gallows humor may work well around the water cooler or even in a comedy club but when you FaceTwitter it goes out to a mass audience and this is where I think he crossed a line. That line is being a corporate spokesperson...and one that's not protected by the First Ammendment. Gottfried can "live a little" all he wants...Twitter to his heart's content, but he'll be doing it without that nice paycheck he's enjoyed for the past decade. For those facing destroyed lives, the concept of "live a little" takes on a whole different meaning.

[Hubert Flottz]

4. Gottfried should have ducked & covered his ass.

I think the Duck was about due for an oil change anyway. It was kind of funny the first 45678909876543321121112233445666778 times I saw it though.

[ReggieVeggie]

6. Gottfried say "AFFF-FUCK!!"

[jannyk]

8. Paging Graywarrior. Do you think your guy is up for it?

[Erose999]

9. He won't be missed, LOL. Can't stand his voice. I always wondered what type of consumer

those commercials were meant to attract.

[jannyk]

10. France grades Fukushima a 6 out of 7 on disaster scale.

1228: France's nuclear safety authority says it classifies the Fukushima plant accident as level six. The maximum is level seven, used only once for the 1986 Chernobyl accident, Reuters reports.


and...

#
1226: German flag-carrier Lufthansa says it is diverting all Tokyo-bound flights to other Japanese cities until at least Sunday, Agence France Press reports.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12307698

[Bardley]

11. it was a great gig for a strange looking guy with an annoying voice who wasnt funny

looks like the duck cooked his own goose

[warrior1]

12. I was wondering

why I hated that voice.

[cbdo2007]

14. I'm guessing Aflac was wanting to get rid of Gottfried anyways and was looking for publicity

to do so.

I wouldn't be surprised if they set the whole thing up with him, as they will both come out of this thing ahead.

[SOS]

15. He's consistent anyway

He failed as a comedian.
Now he has failed as the voice of a duck.

Awesome career!

[DainBramaged]

16. Watch the Right fucking ignorant wing come to his 'aid'.

Not very smart. Tragedy is not comical. Fuck him.

[gratuitous]

17. Bwahahahahaha! I'm dyin' here

Wowee wow wow! That Gilbert Gottfried is every bit as funny as Dennis Miller and Victoria Jackson! Maybe he can provide the voice for the Mallard Fillmore cartoon. Whoohoohoohoo.

[Hubert Flottz]

18. Well that's just Ducky Gilbert...

"Asscrack" is what I thought he was saying all that time and I thought he was talking about Dumbya Bush.

I wish the Progressive Biker Girl would get the axe next.

There should be a law to protect us from stupidity overload on TV.