In the aftermath of the Great Fire of London which destroyed about 13,000 houses, property insurance became a necessity instead of luxury. From that singular event, modern insurance was birthed and today almost everything – property, motor, travel, health etc can be insured. However, with the emergency of new fields of endeavors which brings about new vocations, some rather unusual insurance risks have equally emerged. One of the most bizarre of them is disgrace insurance.

To understand this concept of disgrace insurance, just try to remember that your favorite celebrity that you hold in high esteem with a personality that portrays morality and perhaps seen as a role model for young people. Yes, that very celebrity is now involved in a very embarrassing situation like inappropriate sexual behavior, public brawl, club fight, etc and possibly caught on camera. How do you face your kids or other people you have made to believe that your favorite is the one to lead them into the future? You will feel embarrassed for him and wish it never happened. Perhaps your favorite needs a disgrace insurance cover.

Disgrace insurance is borne out of the need to protect brand owners represented by celebrities against possible loss of revenue arising out of a scandal involving their ambassadors. It is more interesting to note that the measurement of whether claim is payable is purely dependent on the level of public disapproval as measured by public outcry index. Disgrace insurance unlike regular insurance where the insured risk is defined and compensation is triggered by the insured person suffering a loss, is a designed to protect the brand owners the insured person represents.

This special or rather unusual insurance was brought to limelight by SpottedRisk founded by Janet Comenos. The focus is on keeping tab on the activities of Hollywood stars and other public figures, for racial slurs, sexual misbehaviors, general misdemeanor, improper social media posts, public personality miscarriage, red-light districts activities, public offences, and generally anything that could impact them and the brand they represent negatively. Information gathered are processed by data scientists who flog the numbers based on 224 factors and generate a risk score over 100 for each person to measure how likely they are to being permanently cancelled or boycotted for any offensive behavior.

Whenever a celebrity is involved in any scandal, the brand they represent are badly hit which generally runs into millions of dollars. In order to cushion the financial effects of such possibilities, disgrace insurance is rather a necessity especially when a brand is associated with a major celebrity. In this era of different reality TV shows in every area including but not limited education, music, fashion, entertainment etc big corporations having disgrace insurance is not out of place.

Insurance market in Africa, especially Nigeria is still at the development stage where lots of products available in other climes are absent. With the rapid development of entertainment and showbiz in Nigeria in recent times, the market may not need to wait much longer to witness new set of products.

Premium is the token paid to buy certainty when uncertainties happen. – Be Insured Naija

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