Poetry as insurance

The summer fiction issue of The New Yorker contains an advertising insert by AIG (American International Group, Inc., an insurance company) called Well Versed: Poems for the Road Ahead: Inspiration for Young People of All Ages.

Yes, Robert Frost is in there. Guess which poem?
And Rudyard Kipling's "If."
And "First Fig" by Edna St. Vincent Millay [which I find perversely humorous].
And Rilke's "The Future."
And "Ernest Hyde" from Spoon River Anthology.

Then there are three contemporary poems (the only ones with copyright attributions) to round things out.

The only copy inside the little booklet is the poetry. Each poem is accompanied by a colorful painting. It's 5.5" square and saddle-stapled.

The copy on the back--one would think--should serve to tie together the message about just what poetry has to do with insurance. But it doesn't. "In life, there is no substitute for experience. The same goes for your money. 85 years of helping families...." Etc.

Somebody pitched what amounts to a chapbook poetry anthology to an insurance agency as a way to market their services to "young people of all ages" who read the New Yorker...and it flew.

Stunning.