Allstate Says It Will Cost $400 Billion to Rebuild San Francisco

Copyranter points out an Alstate ad that appeared in tuesday's Wall Street Journal that showed a snow globe version of San Fransico with a $400 billion price tag attached to it. Apparently, while that seems low, that's the price to rebuild San Francisco after an earthquake of 1906 proportions. The headline reads, "If San Francisco had the same size quake as in 1906, it could cost $400 billion to rebuild." Whille Allstate may want San Francisco residents to feel as though they are in good hands, that's not exactly the most comforting method to do so. Although it certainly gets one thinking about just how much insurance one should have when living on a fault line.

The timing of the ad's placement is very interesting. Over 5,000 people in the advertising industry will be traveling to San Francisco next week to attend the ad:tech conference. We think Allstate knows just how much ad people like to gossip about the ads they just saw and what better place to perpetuate ad gossip than at an ad conference. Hmm.