Aflac Has Found Its New “Spokesduck” [VIDEO]

Daniel McKeague, a sales manager from Minneapolis heard about the opening shortly after Gilbert Gottfried, the comedian who served as the voice of the Duck for more than 10 years, was dismissed for posting a sequence of tasteless jokes on Twitter about the March earthquake and tsunami in Japan six weeks ago.

The auditions were conducted almost entirely online and advertised widely on Aflac’s social media channels — a smart move, given that much of the negative reaction to Gottfried’s misfires was centered on those channels. Ninety percent of the 12,500 entrants submitted recordings of their voices via an online entry form. The remaining 10% showed up at live auditions in six major U.S. cities.

The first commercial with McKeague’s voice will air during NBC’s The Voice at 9 p.m. ET. Aflac worked with ad agency Digitas on the campaign


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