Who Do You Live For? MetLife Asked People on the Street, and the Results Are Quite Sweet

MetLife asks people on the street who they live for in this campaign designed to give life insurance a human dimension.

The answers are pretty much what you'd expect. People live for their spouses, parents and significant others—for their kids, grandkids, siblings and, in one case, an adorable bulldog named Huey.

Two longer YouTube clips anchor the #WhoILiveFor campaign and present many diverse people, while shorter edits break out individual stories. A guitar player named Heath ad-libs a soundtrack/jingle that runs through the longest video, which is a nice touch.

Gustavo, a young Hispanic guy, delivers the sweetest moment when he talks about his boyfriend, Fernando, who "helped me come out of the closet." There's also social outreach, with consumers encouraged to share their stories, though there's no traditional media buy.

MetLife's goal is "to try to get people to think about insurance in a different way," Richard Hong, the company's svp, global brand and marketing, told The New York Times. Most folks "think about life insurance as a death benefit, [but] people really buy life insurance for the other people in their lives. We wanted to flip the lens on this, make it a positive."

Crispin Porter + Bogusky created the work, which coincides with National Life Insurance Month. (Party at my place tonight. BYOB—Bring your own broker!)

The effort's somewhat similar to the Cannes Grand Prix-winning campaign from funeral insurance company Dela, in which real people thank those closest to them while they still can. Both campaigns expose the human core at the heart of what's often perceived as a bureaucratic, faceless (and some might say evil) industry.

Dela's emotionally intense viral films are mini-masterpieces that really get under you skin. That said, I admire the way MetLife lets people simply tell their stories, rather than staging lavish productions designed to go viral. By putting a premium on spontaneity, MetLife delivers a subtly profound payoff.