Letter from Liberty Mutual to United Poultry Concerns

October 1, 2019

Good Afternoon,

Thank you for contacting Liberty Mutual regarding our Limu-Emu ad campaign. Your feedback is appreciated and will be passed along to the appropriate marketing group. I do want to let you know that the scenes involving the emu were CGI work and did not actually involve an emu.

Regards,
Chris

Christine A. Cole
Corporate Consumer Affairs Rep
175 Berkeley St.
Boston, MA 02116
Christine.cole@libertymutual.com
857-224-6384

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Letter from United Poultry Concerns to Liberty Mutual

October 3, 2019

Dear Ms. Cole,

Thank you for your response to our complaint regarding the offensive emu commercials that are currently being broadcast by Liberty Mutual Insurance.

Whether the ad is partly real and partly computer generated, the image of the birds portrayed to the public is demeaning, ugly and violent, and has nothing to do with who emus are in their own world.

Liberty Mutual has no business featuring an emu or any other animal in its advertising. We are asking the company to replace them with commercials that exclusively feature people who elect to be portrayed in “comic” scenes to sell car insurance.

Contrary to the claim in your email, the scenes involving the emu are not entirely CGI work. They actually DO involve one or more emus. According to Liberty Mutual:

“LiMu Emu is a mix of a real bird and CGI. Live emus were used during the initial shoot on set. The final images of the emu in the commercials are a blend of footage captured from the live emus and our digitally created emu.”

Most viewers do not know that the emus featured in the ads could be a mixture of digital and real. Knowing how badly birds and other animals are typically treated in media preparations behind the scenes, we have no confidence at all in Liberty Mutual’s behavior or rhetoric. The ads – nasty, ugly, and heartless – represent animal cruelty and smirking ignorance on the part of whoever dreamed up these miserable commercials.

We will not renew our Workers Compensation insurance policy with Liberty Mutual if the emus ads continue.

We will continue advising people against buying insurance from this company.

Sincerely,

Karen Davis, PhD
President
United Poultry Concerns
12325 Seaside Road, PO Box 150
Machipongo, VA 23405
Office: 757-678-7875
Email: Karen@UPC-online.org

 

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• Ostriches & Emus