Aflac announced the new voice of its fair-feathered duck friend yesterday. Thirty-six year-old father of three, Daniel McKeague was chosen out of a pool of over 12,500 applications.
Aflac fired comedian Gilbert Gottfried after he tweeted some ill-mannered thoughts about the tsunami in Japan last month. According to Ad Age, Japan is Aflac's largest market, so they were wise to dump the not-so-funny comedian. Shortly after, Aflac launched a campaign titled "Answer the Duck's Call" to find the new voice.
Tom Amico from Kaplan Thaler Group, one of Aflac's agencies, was a bit of a jokester when asked what he was looking for during auditions. "I'm just looking for somebody who makes me laugh, so it's very subjective. And then I hope to impose my subjectivity onto... the American people." But in all seriousness, he said, "We want it to sound similar, but different."
Well, look no further. McKeague's slightly burlier voice is not, in my opinion, too far of a stretch from Gottfried's annoying duck quack.
McKeague is a Minnesota resident and a sales manager of a couple local radio stations, so his voice is already used to a bit of local fame. Below is a video of him receiving the news he is the new voice of the webbed-toed icon.
My favorite part about the video is the fact that CEO Dan Amos, President & COO Paul Amos and Senior VP-CMO Michael Zuna are all hunched around a desk bearing American and Japanese flags. Aflac is sending the right message to their Japanese viewers by telling them that the company, and its new voice, don't support the tweets by Gottfried.
Many people were worrying that no one could replace Gottfried's signature quack, but I think McKeague will do just fine. Want proof? Check out the commercial that aired last night debuting his Aflac quack:
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