# Nationwide Dead Kid Nationwide Dead Kid refers to the boy from a grim Nationwide Insurance commercial aired during Super Bowl XLIX on February 1, 2015, who lists milestones he will never reach before revealing he died in a household accident. Within hours, software developer Jared Smith turned a screen capture of the child into a Seattle Seahawks joke that collected over 20,500 retweets, launching an 'I would have X but I died' caption format on Twitter and Reddit. ## Origin Nationwide aired its 'Make Safe Happen' commercial during Super Bowl XLIX on February 1, 2015, in which a child actor lists things he will never do, riding a bike, getting cooties, traveling the world, before stating that he died in an accident[4]. Nationwide said the spot was meant to raise awareness about preventable childhood deaths occurring in the home[5]. That same evening, Charleston, South Carolina software developer Jared Smith posted a captioned screen grab of the boy referencing the Seahawks' final play. By Monday night the Nationwide Dead Kid tweet had collected roughly 20,502 retweets and 15,524 favorites, and Daily Mail credited Smith with sparking the entire response wave[1]. - **Platform:** TV commercial (Super Bowl XLIX) / Twitter (viral spread) - **Creator:** Jared Smith (@jaredwsmith) - **Date:** 2015 ## Overview Captions use a still of the ad's young narrator paired with text written in his deadpan 'things I will never do because I died' voice[3]. Jared Smith's template, 'I would have run it with Lynch, but I died,' mocked the Seattle Seahawks for throwing a slant pass to Ricardo Lockette instead of handing off to Marshawn Lynch, the call that led to Malcolm Butler's game-winning interception for the New England Patriots[1]. Later captions turned the format onto the ad itself, with a Scumbag Steve overlay accusing Nationwide of statistical dishonesty about household injury deaths[7]. Bustle's roundup showed the Nationwide Dead Kid voice applied to petty everyday grievances alongside Seahawks jokes, giving the format two main tracks: football disaster and corporate PSA parody[2]. ## How to Use People typically take the screen capture of the boy and add text starting with 'I would have [verb phrase] but I died,' aiming the joke at a specific sports failure, a missed everyday opportunity, or the Nationwide ad itself. The common convention is to mimic the commercial's flat, sad delivery for comic contrast with a trivial complaint. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Nationwide Dead Kid? Nationwide Dead Kid is the nickname for the boy character in Nationwide Insurance's Super Bowl XLIX commercial, whose on-screen reveal that he died in a household accident sparked mocking image macros in February 2015[3]. ### Where did Nationwide Dead Kid come from? The character appeared in Nationwide's 'Make Safe Happen' ad during Super Bowl XLIX on February 1, 2015, and became a meme the same evening when software developer Jared Smith tweeted a captioned screen grab referencing the Seattle Seahawks' final play[1]. ### What does Nationwide Dead Kid mean? The caption format applies the boy's 'I would have done X but I died' voice to football failures, petty complaints and parodies of the ad's emotionally manipulative premise[2]. ### How do you use Nationwide Dead Kid? Overlay the screen capture of the boy with text starting 'I would have [action] but I died,' typically mocking a specific sports loss, a missed opportunity, or the Nationwide ad's own statistical claims[1]. ### Is Nationwide Dead Kid still popular? The meme peaked in the days after Super Bowl XLIX in February 2015 and is remembered as a classic example of a Super Bowl ad backfiring, with Daily Mail and Bustle both documenting its spread at the time[1][2]. ## References 1. [https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2937213/I-run-Lynch-died-Software-developer-s-Nationwide-meme-causes-Twitter-storm-hundreds-users-post-responses-Super-Bowl-ad.html]() 2. [https://www.bustle.com/articles/61823-nationwides-dead-kid-super-bowl-ad-memes-were-inevitable-are-still-hilarious]() 3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/nationwide-dead-kid]() 4. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKUy-tfrIHY]() 5. [https://www.nationwide.com/about-us/020115-make-safe-happen.jsp]() 6. [https://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/2ugqqs/darkest_super_bowl_ad_ever/]() 7. [https://www.reddit.com/r/AdviceAnimals/comments/2uiaxt/scumbag_nationwide_lied_in_their_commercial/]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/nationwide-dead-kid Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library