What We Know: The OneAmerica Signboard
One of the OneAmerica signs. Often they feature puns, but sometimes, like this one dedicated to a fallen IMPD officer, they are designed to bring the community together. Photo courtesy OneAmerica
GIG: Public Relations Team at OneAmerica SUPERPOWER: Pandemic pun-storming
Yes, we’re the company with the funny sign.
No, we’re not a bank, though we do handle financial services.
We’ve posted quips since 1958 about everything from the 1969 moon landing to getting a haircut.
No repeats. We track the messages in Excel spreadsheets.
Our first coronavirus-related message went up March 23: “Though farther apart, we’re all in this together.”
It’s a fine line writing jokes in the middle of a pandemic. Having a large marketing and communications team means we can bounce things off one another and hone a good suggestion into a great one.
There’s a new message every week, and it’s the same on both boards.
Well, was. When IMPD Officer Breann Leath died last month, we posted two different messages for the first time in our history.
We try to keep it lighthearted. Sixty characters isn’t a lot of space to convey a sophisticated message.
No profanity, politics, or religion.
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- One of the OneAmerica signs that feature weekly puns.
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- “Thank You Hoosier Healthcare Heroes”
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- “Mother Daughter Sister Friend Veteran Officer Hero” in reference to the passing of Officer Breann Leath
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- “Though Farther Apart, We’re All In This Together”
If we can make somebody laugh, smile, or give an extra thought to folks on the front lines, we’ve done our job.
You can submit ideas on our website. We get jokes from across the country, though fewer have come in since the start of the pandemic.
You’ve only got 21 characters per line, so it’s harder than Twitter.
None of our coronavirus-related messages have been crowdsourced, but yours could be the first.
I don’t know if we’ll ever top “Luck Beat a Brady Tonight,” but we’ll try.
