Here’s an amusing 30-second television advertisement from Fidelity Investments that illuminates the benefits of contingency planning.  The spot originally ran in the United States; it’s posted on YouTube.

The premise: your investment is safe because Fidelity has a recovery plan for electric power failures.

This may be the first TV spot in the world for the benefits of business continuity planning. It’s certainly the first one I’ve ever seen, and I’ll bet it’s the first that reached a mass audience in America.

Contingency planning must be ‘ready for prime time’ if the largest mutual fund company in the United States thinks its advertising can compete with ads for beer, babes and burgers by showing investors it can keep the lights on when other companies can’t.

This is no small-change decision: advertising on “Desperate Housewives,” for example, costs USD $394,000 per minute.

Think of the future possibilities: in only 24 hours, intrepid CTU agent Jack Bauer develops a BCP to save the civilization as we know it…

Too far-fetched? Not in Hollywood…

Ladies and gentlemen, start your Tivo‘s.

By Nathaniel Forbes, Forbes Calamity Prevention Pte Ltd, Singapore. Posted: 27 June 2007 at 7:47 am (UTC +8 hours)