Social Security Administration Sees Stars

February 1, 2010 RSS Feed Print

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Chubby Checker, 68, is still doing the twist. His iconic song that topped the charts in the early 1960s continues to be a fixture at wedding receptions and dance halls 50 years later. And now Checker taps his toes and swings his hips in the Social Security Administration's latest promotional video. The advertisement, released in January, promotes a "new twist" in the government program that will help low-income and disabled seniors pay their prescription drug costs.

Checker is the latest star in a series of celebrity-studded Social Security public service announcements that have come out over the past year, most of which feature actress Patty Duke. Duke reprises her role as look-alike cousins Cathy and Patty Lane from the 1960s sitcom The Patty Duke Show in commercials encouraging baby boomers to sign up online for Social Security.

[See America's Best Affordable Places to Retire.]

When the first Duke ad hit the air in January 2009, online applications for Social Security benefits surged. Twenty-six percent of retirement applications were submitted online the month before the celebrity ad campaigns began; within 30 days of the Duke spot, online applications rose to 35 percent and never went back down. Now 37 percent of retirees apply for benefits online. "We credit the increase to the Patty Duke campaign," says Jim Courtney, SSA deputy commissioner for communications. "I think it's a successful formula." Online applications help the SSA process claims faster and reduce wait times in field offices.

The advertisements play on the oldest baby boomer's nostalgia for their youth. The Patty Duke Show ran from and 1963 through 1966, a time when the oldest baby boomers were teenagers. And Checker's song, "The Twist," hit No. 1 on Billboard's charts for the first time in 1960. "If you put people in kind of a nostalgic mood, their response to an advertisement will be much more receptive to it," says David Sprott, at marketing professor at Washington State University in Pullman. "Chubby Checker kind of takes you back to this younger, better time. You start to think, 'That old guy can still dance and sing, and maybe I can too.' "

[See Chubby Checker's Twist Turns 50.]

Consumers form lifelong attachments to the styles of popular music and the movie stars they encountered in their teens and early 20s, according to researchers at Rutgers University and Columbia University. "The period of our youth is when music plays a very big part in our emotional life," says Robert Schindler, a Rutgers University marketing professor. "Having the music playing sort of warms your feelings and tends to lead people to be more predisposed to the message." The peak preference is age 24 for music recordings and 14 for movie stars, Schindler found. "The early '60s is when we baby boomer were kids, and Chubby Checker's music kind of makes us happy," says Chuck Nyren, author of Advertising to Baby Boomers. "The message is simple and straightforward and kind of cute."

But detractors say that viewers pay attention to how gracefully Duke and Checker have aged but may fail to absorb the message that SSA is trying to impart. "The celebrity persona can overwhelm the message," says Brent Green, author of Marketing to Leading-Edge Baby Boomers: Perceptions, Principles, Practices, and Predictions. "Viewers pay attention to him, nostalgically recalling when they first learned the twist, and then the commercial has concluded and the message has not been effectively delivered."

[See Patty Duke Show Reunion Planned.]

Neither Duke nor Checker was paid by the Social Security Administration for their endorsements. The scripts were written in-house by existing SSA employees, and some lines were contributed by Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue. No television time was purchased to run the ads, which aired more than 25,000 times on TV stations. The SSA estimates that the free airtime the commercials were given would cost $14 million to purchase. A production company was hired through a government contract to shoot and edit the announcements.

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For all of the concerns about social security, I feel a whole lot better knowing the system is in place and that efforts to abandon it in favor of privatization are now dead. The government under all administrations took in more in social security taxes than that which was needed. The extra was put into an imaginary lock box. The truth is, social security obligations by the employer and the employee were met, while now there is less coming in than going out, hence the need to dip into the lock box. Unfortunately, the lock box is empty unless you think that IOU's are not going to be funded by general tax obligations. Social security is a great system, one should not have to rely on the vagaries of the stock market and having to acquire sophisticated investing knowledge in order to have a basic level of support during retirement. Politicians love to give us the candy that we demand, in exchange for our votes. Now the public is going to see that the candy must be paid for. The question is, by whom?

Nick of RI 5:10PM April 01, 2010

Why does the IRS take taxes from SS and put it in the general fund? If the money that leaves SS is credited to SS it cwould help save SS beyond the so call date when the IOU's run out.Possiblly that will occur when most of the boomers will no longer be on SS due to deaths.

Harold of NH 10:14AM March 10, 2010

Social Security was fine until the Government dipped into it. (IOU's) If we (the general population) paid it totally off, I promise you the Government would mis-management it again. The IRS wants to lock you up if you don't pay your fair share of taxes but does nothing to the thieves who take it out of the supply. Social Security would have been just fine if it was left alone as intended. Just remember when you vote, if they tell you SS won't be there or "not enough money", then don't vote for them. Vote for those who say " we will find a way to make it work". I could look around the Government and find all the wasteful spending to shore up Social Security. DON"T BE MISLED.

Roy of TX 11:11PM February 16, 2010