Marketing/Communications Aflac Duck Campaign

State of the Industry Paper Aflac Duck Campaign Introduction One company which has had success over the last decade is American Family Life Assurance Company or more commonly known as Aflac (duck voice). Historically, Aflac was a pretty successful company but they were still missing that one piece to make them recognizable. That one thing the company needed was a face and they found it when they launched their Aflac Duck Campaign. In this paper, the Duck campaign strategy will be discussed along with the history of Aflac, target audience and competition of Aflac, and the successful outcome of the campaign.History The American Family Life Assurance Company was founded in Columbus, Georgia by three brothers, John, Paul, and Bill Amos in 1955. Three years later, the company had their first big plan which was developing a cancer expense policy. Several years afterward, Aflac expanded by adding numerous diverse policies to cover accidents, dental, disability, hospital care, and other heal th events. In the 1960s, Aflac thrived on making presentations to companies with large groups of employees. Today, the overwhelming majority (96%) of Aflac’s policies are bought at work through a payroll-deduction basis.Later in the 1970s, Aflac continued its success by expanding into the Japan market. Aflac was only the third American company to sell insurance in Japan. This has proved to very successful since today, Japan is about three-quarters (75%) of the company’s revenue. Aflac continued to do well through the 1980s and into the 1990s and named a new CEO, Daniel Amos, in 1990. Under the newly appointed CEO, Aflac become a Fortune 100 best company to work in the United States in 2000. Overall the company had taken shape beautifully in its history.It was the largest provider of renewable insurance in the US and it was also the largest provider in Japan (History 2012). So what is the problem? Daniel Amos wanted to change one thing about his company and that was bra nd awareness. Despite the success, after initiating name awareness ad campaign in the United States Aflac the name recognition for Aflac came back at 2%. After various attempts to get the company recognized â€Å"The Duck† debuted on New Year’s Day in 2000 (Amos 2010). â€Å"The Duck† â€Å"We had to do something dramatic,† stated Aflac CEO Daniel Amos in a Harvard Business Review (Amos 2010).In the late 1990s, Aflac began listening to agencies pitch ideas for new television advertisements. One agency, Kaplan Thaler Group, was in a meeting tossing around ideas and they themselves were having a tough time remembering the name of the company. Amos explains, â€Å"One day, one of them asked, ‘What’s the name of the account we’re pitching? ’ A colleague replied, ‘It’s Aflac-Aflac-Aflac—Aflac. ’ Someone said that he sounded like a duck, and the idea was born† (Amos 2010). During testing of the differ ent advertisements, Kaplan Thaler ad scored 50% than what Aflac was previously doing.Amos liked that the commercial pointed fun at the company’s name (Amos 2010). When Daniel Amos tried explaining the ad to others they simply did not understand the reasoning behind it. The first Aflac Duck debuted on CNN on New Year’s Day in 2000 (Amos 2010). The bit ran four times an hour. From this point on the rest was history. The first day the commercial aired, Aflac had more visits to their website than the entire year before. Weeks later, the company was getting requests for stuffed animal versions of the duck (Amos 2010).Months later, Amos describes an event at Disney Studios that Aflac was sponsoring. â€Å"We didn’t know whether it would be a good idea to put ducks on all the tables†¦.. I was just watching to see if ducks were left on the tables,† said Amos. This next encounter confirmed Amos had found what he had been looking for. â€Å"I spotted the head of Disney Studios with a bulge under his jacket. When I jokingly asked him what was going on, he said, ‘I want you to understand that Donald is always king around here. But I want to take one home to my kids† (Amos 2010).Daniel Amos had found a dark horse. A duck quacking out the name of his company with various celebrities repeatedly asking for the company name was his winner. â€Å"The Duck† had been born. Target Audience Aflac believed it needed the duck to attract more of their target audience. With the company’s cancer expense services there was not much more room for growth from that audience. That audience is the 35 to 54 year old age group because most of the company’s policies came from business groups. Since Aflac was trying to make a push in selling more policies regarding accident nd liability insurances, they wanted to reach out more to families and attract new customers. Since many other insurance companies offer pretty much the same i nsurance policies Aflac needed a way to stick out (Sunset 2008). This is where the duck comes in. Competition Insurance is always a buyer’s market because everybody wants to have coverage and be protected from accidents, liabilities, health, and other events. Aflac offered similar services to its competing insurance companies such as Citizens Financial Corporation, Conseco Incorporated, and Amerisafe Incorporated.In a tough industry, Aflac had a hard time selling policies outside of their corporate base that they had already built years prior (Sunset 2008). They needed a way to leapfrog the competition. This where the duck comes in. Marketing Strategy behind â€Å"The Duck† As mentioned previously, the Kaplan Thaler Group (KTG) was responsible for creating the pitch idea for â€Å"The Duck. † KTG had developed their own advertising model called â€Å"Big Bang. † KTG’s website describes a â€Å"Bang† as, â€Å"†¦creates brand experience s and connections resulting in deep relationships† (Thaler).Aflac was looking for that deep relationship with consumers so they could be recognized. All the initial spots for Aflac comprised of one central theme. It turned the company’s weakness, a difficult name, into its strength by making that most of the campaign’s humor (Sunset 2008). In all the early advertisements, it started with a small group of discussing a recent accident or trying to decide what insurance company they should buy policies from. In both spots, the people cannot recall the name of an insurance company, the duck pops up and quacks, â€Å"Aflac! This happens continuously throughout the commercial typically with the duck doing something humorous in the background. When people watched more and more of these commercials they already knew what they were getting and that was Aflac. The name became instantly memorized because of the repetition the commercial provided. Looking at the ads, there are several examples of tactics discussed from class. As discussed in Day 12 of lecture, just the foundation of distraction played a role in the commercials. Using the humor of the duck repeating the company name distracted you from what the company s trying to sell but you remembered the name and it made you interested in what the company was. Also from Day 12, the commercial displays the elaboration likelihood model. The level of elaboration is low thus leads the viewers to view the message peripherally. Now since the viewers understand this peripherally they are not taking logic, information, or rational thinking into account. They are viewing it as humorous, which in the Aflac advertisements sparked a change in attitude because immediately the company was more recognized.People accepted the position of the message, the name recognition, probably due to how it was spoken to them and who was saying it. A duck quacking the company name to you repeatedly is easy to remember. Also, p eople had the ability to process the message of name recognition because now that it had a symbol/face it was so easy to remember. Now that the marketing strategies behind â€Å"The Duck† have been revealed, it is easy to understand why there were immediate results. Outcomes/Results As previously mentioned, the day Aflac aired their first â€Å"Duck† commercial; they had more visits to their website that day than the previous year.In the first two weeks of the first year (2000), the company had more sales leads than in 1998 and 1999 combined. In the second quarter of the first year, the company had a record quarter of $168 million in sales (Sunset 2008). In the first year of â€Å"The Duck† in the United States, sales went up 29%. In three years, sales were doubled (Amos 2010). For the first time ever accident/disability insurance swapped with cancer-expense insurance for the company’s number one product (Sunset 2008). Also in the third year, Daniel Amosà ¢â‚¬â„¢s goal was met. Aflac achieved 94% brand awareness.The new account growth increased 10% and the mid-sized business accounts increased 20% (Kaplan Case Study). In 2008, Aflac’s two main markets, USA and Japan, had combined revenue of $16. 6 billion, which is almost double the revenue from the last year (1999) without â€Å"The Duck† (Amos 2010). Aflac has also been named a Fortune 100 Best Company to Work For over the last fourteen years. Aflac was also named on Fortune 500’s list for Best Company overall (Corporate Report 2012). In 2010, Aflac was the number one preferred voluntary insurance carrier (Kaplan Case Study).These results speak for themselves and Aflac is not slowing down. â€Å"The Duck† is everywhere. Looking at Aflac’s website, there are numerous ducks on each page. Aflac is one of the main sponsor’s for NASCAR driver Carl Edwards, who has a giant ducks all around his car. â€Å"The Duck† makes an appearance yearl y in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Aflac has become a mainstay in the world of college football by sponsoring The Heisman Trophy and â€Å"The Duck† often makes appearances with â€Å"The Aflac Trivia Question. † Aflac also makes appearances with the National Football League and Major League Baseball (Aflac Homepage). The Duck† has met some stars over the years as well such as Chevy Chase, Yogi Berra, Yao Ming, the 2004 United States Olympic Swim Team, and even cartoon characters Bugs Bunny and fellow duck, Daffy. Over time, â€Å"The Duck† has also appeared on â€Å"The Tonight Show† and â€Å"Saturday Night Live† (Sunset 2008). â€Å"The Duck† has garnered several awards itself. In 2004, â€Å"The Duck† was named one of the country’s favorite advertising figures (Press Release 2004) and was an original member of the Advertising Walk of Fame (Sunset 2008). Also, a two time Gold Effe Winner (2002 & 2004), Web by Award for Best Web. Com (2010), and People’s Voice Award Winner. The Duck† also had a higher Q Score, which measures familiarity, than Ronald McDonald and the Energizer Bunny (Kaplan Case Study). Aflac does not plan on slowing down this phenomenon either with their newest Duck campaign, â€Å"Get the Alfacts. † Conclusion In conclusion, it should be obvious that the Aflac Duck was one of the most successful campaigns in the past few decades. The company had a great start with their good long history but it just needed that final push. The marketing strategy put in place by Kaplan Thaler Group and Aflac was well put together and they created the company symbol they wanted. The Duck† was able to target the audience, beat out the competition, and get the results Aflac was looking for. When Ms. Kaplan Thaler was asked if the duck will begin saying more than â€Å"Aflac,† she replied, â€Å"That’s going to be up to him. Right now, the Aflacts s peak for themselves† (Elliott 2009). References Sunset, B. (2008, January 28). The Aflac Duck Campaign. Retrieved from http://marketing-case-studies. blogspot. com/2008/01/aflac-duck-2000-campaign. html Amos, D. (2010). How I Did It: Aflac's CEO Explains How He Fell For The Duck. Retrieved from http://www. nternationalistmagazine. com/AflacsCEO. pdf Case Studies Kaplan Thaler. Retrieved from http://kaplanthaler. com/clients/case_studies Thaler, L. , Thaler, R. BANG! Getting Your Message Heard in a Noisy World. Retrieved from http://www. thepowerofsmallbook. com/index. php/other Abbey, R. (2010). Encouraging Animal Advertisers to Pay for the Use of Animal Images: A Voluntary Certification Approach. Retrieved from http://sjalp. stanford. edu/pdfs/Abbey. pdf Elliott, S. (2009, April 21). Not Daffy or Donald, but Still Aflac’s Rising Star. Retrieved from http://www. ytimes. com/2009/04/22/business/media/22adco. html? _r=1;scp=2;sq=Aflac;st=cse (2012). Aflac 2012 Corporate C itizenship Report. Retrieved from http://www. aflac. com/us/en/docs/investors/CSRReport. pdf (2012). Aflac History. Retrieved from http://www. aflac. com/aboutaflac/corporateoverview/history. aspx (2004, September 20). Aflac Press Release. Retrieved from http://www. aflac. com/aboutaflac/pressroom/pressreleasestory. aspx? rid=616598 (2012). Aflac Homepage. Retrieved from http://www. aflac. com/aboutaflac/corporateoverview/missionandvalues. aspx

Meaning of Web 2.0 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Meaning of Web 2.0 - Essay Example According to the findings, Web 2.0 is a discipline in the use of World Wide Web technology that plans to support creativity, most notably, collaboration among all of its users. Web 2.0 has brought dynamic changes in our lives and not even this but it has changed the operations and structures of the businesses all over the world. Like the trend of online businesses has become very common and for this purpose different community sites are being used for marketing. Like Facebook is heavily used for this purpose. Ads and pages are developed for the businesses. This method considerably lower downs the cost of expenses at businesses. This technology has made everyone dependent on it and thus nobody can think to avoid it. The same medium is now used to socialize and communicate with the people. Facebook is a famous social networking site that provides the best platform to stay in touch with friends, colleagues, and others also. As in the busy routine of today, you hardly find time to get re lax so how would it be possible to arrange friends’ gatherings from time to time. But now these social sites have made it possible to stay in touch with all of your friends. LinkedIn and Twitter are also social networking sites which are famous for professional careers especially. One can build your profile and let it be open for the organization's job offers. Secondly one is free to choose more options with this method (Schick, 2005). The great thing about Web 2.0 is that by the social networking sites and the freelancing websites, the diverse cultures are coming closer. People from different countries wor,k for each other and have discussions over cultural issues. Besides the advantages of Web 2.0, there are also some risks involved with it like it has made us hugely dependent upon internet and if for any reason your server goes down then what will you do? Now all of the work is conducted over the internet, no paperwork is involved. So there is a big question mark in front of the risks involved with this method. Another negative thing about Web 2.0 is that the sharing has become very common and the copyrighted things are losing their value because of this. Music, Books, Videos, Movies, and others go into a loss when are being shared. The journalist Steven Johnson writes in his article Celebration of Web 2.0: â€Å"What may be lost when everyone is a potential expert and everyone is talking at once†Ã‚  

The UK economic crisis on businesses Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

The UK economic crisis on businesses - Essay Example The situation in the capital market was bad. The situation was further worsened by the fact that the housing loans were packaged as financial debt instruments and were sold in the capital markets. Companies around the world purchased the instruments and with the default of the loans, the instruments also became bad. Therefore, the economy overall was affected badly. (Walayat, 22nd August, 2007). The economy of the UK officially entered the recession with the decreased level of growth in two successive quarters. The Government and the banks helped the economy to face the tough situation with pumping in money and effecting rate cuts. This resulted in the Government borrowing money and thus was in a bad situation in the repayment of the loans. The companies were in a bad situation and they were looking to cut costs. There was huge job cutting among the companies and the unemployment reached massive levels. (Oxlade, 12th March, 2010; Bank warns of recession into 2009, 12th November, 2009 ). The recession was hard on the employees and the workers in different industries. The organizations restricted most of the benefits to the workers for cutting costs. A survey found that in the UK among a sample size of 704 organizations, 55% of the sample was planning to decrease the bonus and the pay or to freeze the process altogether. Among the sample size, 61% had no plans for recruiting new workers and 34% were contemplating on not recruiting the graduates. The labor market was in total disarray and the companies increased the off shoring process. The companies in order to cut costs were operating in flexible hours to allow the workers to work more. Bonus and incentives were not paid by most of the respondents. (Broughton, 10th August, 2009) . The situation was the same all over the world. Almost all the countries were more or less perturbed by the recession. Some of the major economies of the world were the most affected. In this paper, the countries of Japan and

CJ403 Final Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

CJ403 Final - Research Paper Example In this paper, the author examines the Enron Corporation scandal by looking at some ethical principles and theories. By using such frameworks, it is hoped that a deeper analysis of business practices can be arrived at, one that clearly outlines the need for asking pertinent questions about moral conduct in a sector of society that is undeniably susceptible to unethical behavior. The Enron Corporation initiated various corporate means that, at the time, were seen as bold and perhaps even revolutionary. This was especially true when Jeffrey Skilling, former Enron CEO, came on board upon impressing founder and deregulation advocate, Kenneth Lay, with his consultancy capabilities. Prior to the Skilling phase of the company, Enron’s traders had been gambling without restraint using company funds, but with the knowledge of Kenneth Lay. Even with investigations and reports of misappropriation of funds, Lay intimated to traders to further continue generating money for the company. However, as is the nature of â€Å"gambling†, luck is bound to change. Enron’s traders soon gambled all of the company’s reserves. Nevertheless, the company survived and went on to employ Skilling. It was Skilling’s idea to utilize mark to market accounting, that is, the use of future projections to book earnings on deals that actually never made anythin g. This idea essentially opened up the company to unscrupulous practices, paving the way for fraudulent profit reports. Enron was also one of the first companies to form what they called, a Performance Review Committee, whose job it was to ensure that all employees were delivering the results that the company expected from them. This had the effect of pressuring employees to perform well, but had the unsavory consequence of pushing employees to adopt and utilize â€Å"less than ethical† conduct. By positioning itself as a kind of energy broker, Enron put up a number of businesses that, in reality,

Paper on business proposal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Paper on business proposal - Essay Example Most of the organizations utilize financial, informational, material and human resource to run their business. In most of the cases it has been seen that were there is disorientation and mismanagement of human resource, problem occurs and other resources are also not properly utilized. In this study the focus would be on the difficult problems that business organizations encounter on daily basis. It has been noticed that these problems are usually those whose solutions are not so easily identifiable or they involve some form of controversy. Keeping in mind such issues, the study would begin with the discussion of the organization and its various day to day functions, the resources required for such functions, and the role of human resource in such situations. In order to describe the organization problems and discuss other significant aspects related to the functions and operations, a very famous Chinese home appliance company, Haier has been chosen. Though Haier has a stable positio n in the market and it is a very well-known brand, yet big organizations are bound to face difficult situations every day, which we are going to focus in this study (Haier lnc, 2012). Business Organizational Problems Companies and organizations around the world are continuously striving to examine and improve their ways of conducting business, so as to introduce multi-business model that would derive a good profit in the long run. The strategy implementation process is still the same in most of the organizations. It includes methods related to the implementation of organizational design, combining the organizational structure, control and strengthening the culture of the organization for smooth functioning of the multibusiness model concept in the organization for increasing the profitability. In order to assess the problem areas, it is very important to understand the organizational structure and the components that comprised of the framework of the organization, the shape of the o rganization, such as tall or short. This helps a lot in determining the problem areas in organization. Next we come to integration of different approaches, different structures, business or regulations within the organization. This is also important because it assists in determining when did the problem occur or might occur in near future. Then in case of re-engineering the organizational structure of functions we can notice that unidentified issues come up which even the management could not handle in the right manner (Ziegenfuss, 2001, p. 7-8). It has been noticed that organizational structure or financial issues are not always the root cause of the problems in the organization. Organizational culture is very important and it has been observed that every organization has its own unique set of culture, which differs from the other. Now based on the discussed reasons behind the organizational problems, we are going to understand the organizational problems of Haier, a famous Chinese home appliance. The first problem in Haier is regarding managing the human capital of the organization. In Haier even the exceptionally skilled employees are not rewarded adequately or motivated for his or her good work. Though the management considers it to be a part of their company policy, but it is proving itself as a bad employer among the human resource. Moreover, the approach of the company is to focus on individual efforts and performance, so there is no

Example of the Statement of Claim Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Example of the Statement of Claim - Assignment Example The plaintiff and seller entered into an agreement for purchasing a villa that was to be completed within a specified date. The two signed an agreement that was meant to be followed to the later. The plaintiff performed all covenants, conditions, and promises that had been made. The plaintiff relied on the information in the sales agreement before entering the deal. However, the defendant did not state that he was facing some problems as a result of the emerging financial crisis. As a result of the breach, the plaintiff has been affected financial as a result of the prior commitments that had been made. Concise statement of facts The facts that vary in the case include, a villa that is luxurious was bought on the 3rd of November from the respondent. After that, the claimant responded with a letter on the 7th of January stating that the project of the house was put on hold as a result of a financial crisis that prevailed in the year 2008. The respondent requested that the claimant sho uld stop making any further payments as had been the initial agreement in the making of the deal. After that, the claimant wrote a letter to the respondent asking for a refund of the payments made. However, the respondent did not reply to the letter. The letter had also requested for a termination of the agreement immediately. Later on, in the month of June 2009, the claimant wrote another letter to the respondent requesting for termination of the contract, however, the letter was also not replied to. In the month of August, the claimant requested for a refund of his funds plus an extra interest amount as a result of the failure to comply with the agreement and failing to reply to the letters from the claimant. Points at issue At the signing of the agreement, there were some agreements that were made between the claimant and the respondent. It stated that the date of completion would be stated by the seller. The completion date was approximated to be the month of July the year 2009; however, the date of completion could be extended by a year by the respondent. The seller was also supposed to give the buyer a one month’s notice before the date of completion so that the buyer could get ready to get the new villa. There was also an agreement that would ensure that if the completion date was not within the stipulated time period, the buyer may remedy such a deal and ensure that he gets a refund of all the money within 60 days. The money is returned within 60 days could not be entitled to an interest rate. The return of the payments would constitute the surrender of all the rights. The agreement stated that in case of any disputes, they should be resolved by the use of arbitration. Claimant’s arguments The claimant may argue that there was a breach of contract.  

Instrument of oppression Essay Example for Free

Instrument of oppression Essay To what extent is any state an instrument of oppression. (50 marks) Anarchism holds the primary view that the state oppresses its citizens. They believe that we are all capable of living together peacefully in a society without authority. According to anarchists, the state is oppressive because humans are naturally free and equal but the state takes this away from them and therefore oppresses them. The belief is that true freedom can only be obtained with the abolishment of the state and the rejection of power. Furthermore, the fact that we did not consent to the state (we were simply born into it) then we have no political obligation to obey the laws and uphold their society. Two other main views that the state can be an instrument of oppression are held by Marxists and Liberalists. The Marxist view is that the superstructural features of the state (e.g. legal and political institutions, social consciousness, morality, religion etc.) only serve the interest of the dominant class and reinforce the oppressive power structures. Furthermore, Liberalism states that the role of the state should be limited to protecting the life, liberty and property of the individuals (Locke’s Law of Nature) and this can only be achieved when the state is a neutral umpire in affairs. If the state ever goes beyond this then its power becomes oppressive. The anarchists criticise the state by saying that it is, by its nature, authoritarian, it employs centralised power structures and claims a monopoly on legitimate violence (this means that if anyone else apart from the state were to use violence to, for example, protect themselves then this is classed as illegitimate and they can be punished for this). Anarchism outlines the following reasons as to why the state should be abolished and replaced by social organisations: the state is sovereign and claims complete authority to define the rights and obligations of the citizens, the state is compulsory and all citizens are forced to oblige and the state is a distinct body (which means that its roles and functions are separated from others) and those who make up the government tend to form a distinct class. This forms the most fundamental reason why the state should be abolished with is that the state violates and undermines liberty. One could argue that the state is useful because they provide protection from individuals against  others and co-ordinate productive work. Furthermore, Hobbes puts forward the view that because human nature is naturally egotistic, anarchy would give free reign to exploit each other and that without laws human society would descend into a war of all against all with everyone serving their own interests and not co-operating. However, anarchists argue that for both of these essential functions, we do not need the state. We need some form of collective body or bodies, but these need not claim sovereignty and need no more power than what is required for their specific function. They can be voluntary, with people allowed to join or leave as they choose. There need not be just one body providing these functions as these could be competition between associations and they could be run by everybody together. Overall, the anarchist view is not entirely convincing. They seem to have misunderst ood human nature and think too highly of how humans would behave and co-operate with a governing body to direct them. Marxism holds a similar view of the state as an instrument of oppression but proposes another way around this. It states that the state and its superstructural features only serve the interests of the dominant class and it reinforces oppressive power structures. They believe that liberal and conservative ideological justifications of the state only reflect the dominant class’s interests. Marxists believe that oppression stems from exploitation. They say that the state exploits its subjects in two main ways: it extracts profit from workers by paying them less wages than what their labour is worth and they alienate individuals from the means of production, products of their labour and any sense of community or private ownership. They believe that this stops genuine freedom and therefore the state becomes oppressive. Furthermore, the exercise of political power is against our natural rights. We all have natural right to freedom which the state removes. Nobody can justly subordinate to another’s authority without their consent and since we were either born into the state and therefore did not ask to be involved and do not have to obey the laws or because no state can obtain the consent of all the citizens then its use of power must therefore be illegitimate and oppressive. The solution proposed by Marxists is that of communism. Pure communism states that there will be no state, no money, no private property and no crime. They believe that humans are  malleable and can grow, develop and realise their potential through their relationships with each other. The view is that humans will live co-operatively in a society without the state. However, Marxism seems to have an idealistic view of human nature and misunderstands that people would not work together and live peacefully. Furthermore, history has shown us that communism simply doesn’t work as a leader will always be needed to start a revolution and from then on they will become the state which we would have consented to and therefore would not be oppressive. Overall, the Marxist view makes good points on how the state is oppressive but the alternative of communism would simply bring us around to a state that we have consented to through our support of the revolution and therefore this state would not be oppressive. Liberalism believes that the state should be limited to protecting the life, liberty and property of individuals (Locke’s Law of Nature). They propose that the state should become a neutral umpire which is only there to stop you causing harm to others. Anything beyond this and the state becomes oppressive. The state becomes oppressive when it legislates within the private sphere (e.g. when it becomes concerned with our moral improvement, when it adopts a paternalistic concern for the welfare of the citizens, when it over-regulates the economy or when it outlaws freely chosen economic transactions. They believe that the use of coercion by the state goes beyond what is needed to ensure good order as their laws are excessive and punitive. Furthermore, the way that the state intervenes in the private life of its citizens (by, for example, criminalising private affairs such as drug use) means that it does not act as a neutral umpire and is oppressive because it restricts the individuals freedom to do what they want with their private life. In conclusion, the state is naturally oppressive to the individual’s freedom and the fact that we haven’t consented to it yet still have to follow its laws further restricts this. However, the alternatives to the state would not work (as history has shown us with Marxism, for example). Furthermore, Hobbes seems to have an accurate view on human nature (that we are all self-interested) and therefore, regardless of whether the state is  oppressive, we need it to protect us from harming each other. In this sense, the state is not oppressive because it actually protects our life, liberty and property (even if we haven’t consented to it and do not want to live by its rules it is still there to help us).