Sweden's Consumer Agency has criticized insurer If for an ad campaign implying that home insurance covers lost digital information, which it does not. The ads, visible on posters in Stockholm's subway, contrast everyday solutions like backup hard drives against If's claimed substantial help. If defends itself by stating the ad targets a corporate data breach insurance.
If Skadeförsäkring's ad concept, known as 'X helps a little, If helps a lot,' has appeared on streets, TV, and posters in Stockholm's subway. A specific ad depicts a backup hard drive, an undo button in a computer program, or a frustrated keypress as helping 'a little,' while If 'helps a lot.' The Consumer Agency reviewed the ads and deemed them misleading under section 10 of the Marketing Practices Act (MFL).
According to the agency, the marketing implies it concerns home insurance and that If compensates for lost digitally stored information, such as texts, images, or films from deletion, theft, or device damage. However, If's home insurance does not cover such losses, neither the value of one's own work nor damage to stored data. 'The Consumer Agency perceives the marketing as If claiming to be able to "help a lot," while a backup hard drive... helps a little. It is not clear which insurance the marketing refers to,' the agency states in its assessment. They urge If to provide an explanation.
If responds that the ad targets their data breach insurance for businesses, not home insurance. 'Our ads... illustrate a range of different situations aimed at various target groups and linked to different types of insurances,' press chief Josefin Berglund Belani states in an email. The concept mentions the brand without specifying products, which is common in advertising.
This is not the first criticism of If's campaign. In August, the Consumer Agency questioned an ad film about gnaw damage from a mouse, which is not covered by home insurance. IT security expert Karl Emil Nikka, who photographed the ad, warns it downplays the importance of backups: 'It is always important to have a backup. Files you do not have two copies of are files you do not care about.' He recommends syncing to the cloud and using external hard drives for important files.