Trump held a meeting with American workers in the Oval Office Wednesday to promote the tax cut bill and discuss how U.S. companies are responding since it was signed into legislation before Christmas.
Michael Porter, representing the insurance company Aflac, was among those in attendance.
Aflac CEO Dan Amos announced in a statement on Dec. 28, “We are pleased that these tax reforms provide Aflac with an opportunity to increase our investments in initiatives that reflect our company values; providing for our employees in the long and short term, ensuring growth for our company and giving back to the community.”
Porter, a resource manager working with the general counsel’s office at Aflac, told Trump, “What [Aflac has] done with the tax cut and giving back to their employees and their 401(k)s is phenomenal, and it really gives my wife and I the ability to focus on our kids and not worry about what’s going on down the road. Retirement will come.”
He then handed Trump a pair of duck-embellished socks (because one naturally gives the gift of footwear when visiting the President of the United States).
Pres Trump gets a pair of @Aflac socks from employee invited to describe the company’s increased contributions to employee 401(k) programs. @POTUS mentioned that (in 2005), wife Melania was in a commercial with the @Aflac duck. pic.twitter.com/KqNu6JnOeo
— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) January 31, 2018
According to the Ledger-Enquirer, the president’s response was to bring up his wife’s role in an old company ad. “Your chairman I know very well, and he’d done a fantastic job. He actually a long time ago hired my wife to do a big commercial, an Aflac commercial, and I think it was a successful commercial, too. So say hello to him.”
Melania’s first and last Aflac appearance dates back to 2005 just after her and Trump were married, the same year the company changed its logo to include the iconic talking duck (well, it’s more of a talk-quack, really).
The commercial, entitled “Experiment,” is 30 seconds long, black and white and takes place in a lab where a mad scientist is pulling a Frankenstein — he wants to swap the duck’s brain with the former model’s (who is referred to as “Mrs. Trump”).
The two subjects are strapped down to tables, seemingly unmoving. When his assistant asks him why he’s so keen on doing the switch, the scientist exclaims, “To tell the world the benefits of Aflac with sex appeal!”
Amos told AdWeek at the time that after five years of the bird only blurting out the “Aflac!” catchphrase, the commercial “gives the duck a voice in a very clever and entertaining way.”
The assistant throws the switch, and through a bolt of electricity — voila! — it’s done.
Watch how it all plays out:
“I am very excited to make my acting debut in the latest Aflac commercial,” Melania told AdWeek before the ad came out. “Donald is known for saying ‘You’re fired.’ Maybe I will be known for saying ‘Aflac.'”
