• by Les Luchter , September 3, 2025

Aflac hopes that every time you see a checkered pattern, you’ll be reminded to get checked for cancer.

That’s one ambitious aim of the insurer’s new "Check for Cancer" initiative, which Chief Communications Officer Ines Rodrigues Gutzmer calls a “corporate social responsibility” campaign, its largest ever. 

But there’s more to “Check for Cancer” than just raising awareness.

Gutzmer tells Marketing Daily it’s more of a “movement” than a campaign, with a goal of increasing cancer screening rates by 10% over the next decade.

“We have a very ambitious objective here,” Gutzmer boasts, but “10 years to build this.”

According to statistics from the American Cancer Society and Aflac’s own Wellness Matters Survey, one in three people will develop cancer in their lifetime, yet more than 90% have put off getting a checkup or recommended health screening.

Aflac’s infamous duck mascot barely registers in a commercial that instead features scenes of a chessboard, with the winning player proclaiming “checkmate”; a patron at a checkered-tablecloth restaurant asking the waiter for her “check, please”; a child pointing up at a checkered-patterned kite while proclaiming “check that out”; and two women saying “raincheck” in unison outside a box office that sports a “sold out” sign.

A voiceover then says, “The reminders are everywhere. Check-ups and cancer screenings can change lives.”

While minus the quacking duck and other obvious humor of Aflac’s consumer work, the campaign still takes a “soft tone,” Gutzmer says. “It’s not sad,” she notes. “We don’t believe in scary tactics because people do not respond to that.”

The campaign, boasting creative from Edelman’s Zeno Group, launched Aug. 31 during ESPN’s coverage of college football’s Aflac Kickoff Game, as Virginia Tech met South Carolina.

The latter’s women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley, meanwhile, is one of two announced campaign spokespeople, the other being Fox Sports commentator and cervical cancer survivor Erin Andrews.

Andrews, who was diagnosed with cancer at 38, also serves as an example of how the disease is affecting younger and younger people, Gutzmer notes. “That’s a concern because young people are the ones more likely [to say], ‘that’s not going to happen to me. I’m young and active.’ So one of the things we want to do is talk to younger demographics.”

Besides national TV, the new commercial, which comes in :30, :15 and :06 lengths, is also running on social media, along with postings from Andrews.

While social will be the prime focus for “Check for Cancer” through the remainder of 2025, Gutzmer also promises:

• Street teams with checkered pattern jackets walking the streets in some cities, “giving people brochures and information about available resources.”
• 15 nationwide activations, including one surrounding Boston’s  Head of the Charles Regatta in mid-October, “where we’re going to literally swarm the Harvard Station and dressing up a boat."

Aflac has a stake in people getting checked for cancer. The company, after all, invented the cancer insurance category way back in 1957, Gutzmer says.

Yet even people who pay to be insured against cancer, don’t necessarily get screened.

Why? “That’s the million-dollar question,” Gutzmer answers.

According to the recent Aflac survey, conducted by Kantar Profiles, people overall don’t get screened due to “lack of time, but most times it’s fear,” she relates. “People prefer not to know, not to have a piece of bad news. But cancer screens are our best line of defense."

The campaign’s goal of increasing the cancer screening rate by 10% means the campaign will run for a long time but, Gutzmer says, “My hope is it’s less than 10 years, that we get to our goal in five years.”

Partners can help that process.

“Sometimes, we tend to be territorial to protect our brand,” Gutzmer admits, even with that duck helping Aflac to reach 86% or more brand recognition. “But with this campaign, we’re open to other companies taking the check for cancer and using it. Imagine a company that does packaged goods, and for Cancer Prevention Month in April, they do a special edition with the checker pattern.

“We want to get to a point where people can just not avoid seeing the checker pattern, and book their appointment to get checked for cancer, and keep their appointment.”

In the meantime, for everyone who posts on social media with the hashtag #CheckForCancer, Aflac will donate $5, up to $1 million total to the Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.