Income Insurance's Max the Stress Ball is back and more unhinged than ever

Max is mad, jobless and fuming because his human found financial zen. Who knew existential dread could be this squishy?

Selling insurance is usually about as exciting as watching paint dry in a damp cave. So imagine Ad Nut’s delight when Income Insurance and BBH Singapore managed to make it watchable and actually memorable. It’s not often Ad Nut says this about savings products, but here we are.

Meet Max: a stress ball with a face and feelings and tragically now out of a job. Before you blame AI for the financial instability, the real culprit is his human, David, who went and bought Income’s Gro Cash Plus plan—a capital-guaranteed savings product that’s left him so stress-free he no longer needs to squeeze Max into oblivion. Now Max is spiralling, unemployed, and dangerously close to an incident involving office furniture.

BBH’s Nico Tangara calls it “100% real footage,” and while Ad Nut suspects some exaggeration, there’s a sad little truth at the core of it. When your whole purpose in life is to absorb someone else’s stress and suddenly that stress disappears... what do you do with yourself?

 
Silly, surreal and the humour doesn't feel forced. It works.  Max’s meltdown hits a nerve. He’s not glossy or grinning under an umbrella. He’s furious, unemployed, and deeply squishable. Ad Nut respects that.

And if Ad Nut is being liberal with praise, Max has range. He’s odd and memeable and has lunchbox potential. Maybe even a spot in the Ad Nut Hall of Fame (still reviewing applications, Max, no promises and rage isn’t a personality).

For now, it’s oddly poetic: in a world desperate to be “authentic,” it’s a foamy ball with anger issues that feels the most real.

Credits
 
Client: Income Insurance
Agency: BBH Singapore
Production Company: Freeflow Productions
 
Ad Nut is a surprisingly literate woodland creature that for unknown reasons has an unhealthy obsession with advertising. Ad Nut gathers ads from all over Asia and the world for your viewing pleasure, because Ad Nut loves you. You can also check out Ad Nut's Advertising Hall of Fame, or read about Ad Nut's strange obsession with 'murderous beasts'.