Late next month, Aflac CMO Garth Knutson had a revelation about his company’s most enduring pitchman while driving around Seattle. The Aflac bird is a star, he thought, and we pay artists to be in our adverts. Why ca n’t the duck be in some other brand’s commercials?
Knutson teased the plan out in his mind and arrived on a good partner, Dr Pepper, whose prevalent” Fansville” school football ads are among his beloved non-Aflac campaigns. He was in a conference with his rival at Dr Pepper a few phone calls and one low-res PDF afterwards.
A 30-second Fansville advertisement featuring the bird waving an Aflac flag was the product of that concept, which was unveiled on Friday. It’s a unique cross between two of college sport’s most popular ads, and a first for the insurance company. Aflac has not, Knutson said, used its own brand or Internet in this way inside another bank’s business.

” They sell soda, we sell supplemental health insurance—from a competition standpoint we could n’t be further apart”, Knutson said in an interview. However, we both choose school sports as one of the way we talk about our products because we’re both selling to a sizable portion of America.
The campaign will continue to be broadcast until the close of the year. Aflac ( NYSE: AFL ) covered the production costs associated with the duck’s involvement, Knutson said, with no additional licensing or talent fee. Keurig Dr Pepper Inc ( Nasdaq: KDP ) is handling the bulk of the ad buys to run the spot, he added, though Aflac is pitching in to pay a small portion of those costs. A Dr Pepper representative did n’t respond to an email asking for comments on the process or the financials, and Coconutson did n’t provide financial details.
Knutson said he mentioned the unique idea in a one-on-one conversation with Aflac leader Virgil Miller after late last year when he was encouraged to try to make it work. The next step, Knutson said, was to speak with people at Dagger, Aflac’s creative firm of history in Atlanta. A tongue-in-cheek collapse of the frog’s achievements in the 24 years that Aflac has used it in ads was created by them and they collaborated to create a around 20-page ball deck for Dr Pepper. The board mentioned the frog’s history, its numerous co-stars through the years, plus its other achievement, such as a 2004 training into the Madison Avenue Walk of Fame and its humanitarian work with children suffering from cancer or heart problems. The goose, the record said, is available for work.
In earlier 2024, Knutson said he texted a low-res File of the bird board to Brian Mead, a former classmate, who now works as an accounts director at Liquid Sunshine, Dr Pepper’s in-house artistic agency. The slide report was the only text message that was included in the text message. Knutson said Mead responded about quickly: How may we make this happen?
From there Aflac’s artistic group had a contact with peers at Keurig Dr Pepper, including CMO Andrew Springate. The conference went also, Knutson recalled, but finally talk went silent for a number of days. Reps for Dr Pepper and its organization pitched Aflac on a hard text of the ad that was made public this week, and on June 17 —Knutson was aware of the exact date right off the bat.

” They got like 18 hours into a 30-second text and, I remember this, I loudly said,’ Sold!,'” Knutson said. ” It was exactly what I was hoping for.”
The advertisement was subsequently created by Dr Pepper and its organization with some input from Aflac.
While cross-brand advertising is exceptional, it’s never unheard-of. It’s probably most prevalent in the entertainment industry, where fresh films or TV shows occasionally work with consumer brands to promote both.
Aflac has done a bit of this, Knutson said. The Aflac bird has appeared in the Toy Story universe, alongside Jim Carrey in a discount for a Lemony Snicket movie, in an advertisement for a 2017 reset of Disney’s Bird Tales, and most just, running on a balcony alongside the kitten from Puss in Boots. According to Knutson, those partnerships were the catalyst for the idea to approach Dr. Pepper.
Eagle-eyed TV viewers might also notice that sister brands from the same parent company jointly advertise. Doritos and Pepsi, for example, both owned by PepsiCo, have been co-featured in commercials in the past.
This collaboration between Dr. Pepper and Aflac falls outside both of those categories. Because the two companies are not competitors and college football fans are already familiar with their IP, Knutson said, it works.
Former Alabama coach Nick Saban, who is entering his sixth year appearing alongside the duck, and Colorado coach Deion Sanders, who is entering his fourth year, are among Aflac’s college pitchmen. Dr Pepper’s serialized” Fansville” ads, now in their seventh season, have featured current and former college stars, including Caleb Williams, Bryce Young and Quinn Ewers. The Big 12 football championship game is sponsored by Dr. Pepper, and there is a halftime scholarship contest in Atlanta that has gained a lot of attention. Aflac is the name sponsor of the Peach Bowl’s kickoff game, which features a long-running trivia segment that airs on broadcasts of all kinds.
In terms of TV ads, Dr Pepper is one of the five biggest spenders on college football, alongside a group of insurance companies—Allstate, State Farm, Geico and Progressive—according to media buyer estimates. Aflac is among the top 20.
The partnership also includes the duck in the Fansville universe for social promotion. Aflac employees, Knutson said, will show up to work on Monday across the company’s main five campuses greeted by supermarket-style Dr Pepper activations and fridges stocked with soda.
Knutson stated that Aflac is open to doing similar co-branded ads in the future if the need arises. However, the company has no plans to do them.
” Next year is the Aflac duck’s 25th anniversary, and that’s a pretty big year”, he said. Although we have n’t had any conversations with anyone about other partnerships like this, it is definitely turning heads.
With assistance from Anthony Crupi.