Super Bowl commercial sparks concerns among lightning-safety experts

A Super Bowl commercial purports to take an amusing look at a lightning survivor’s electricity phobia, but some lightning-safety experts aren’t exactly getting a charge out of it.

In the ad, a man identifying himself as someone who was struck by lightning on a motorcycle trip 10 years ago, describes his phobia of electricity and his workaround strategies that include powering his washing machine with a belt connected to a stationery bike.

It all ends well, however, when he reveals that his phobia does not extend to the sponsor’s — that would be Wallbox’s — power cord that he fearlessly affixes to his electric vehicle.

“We suspect some lightning strike survivors will not like the commercial,” John Jensenius, NOAA’s specialist with the National Lightning Safety Council, said Friday. About 90% of victims survive, he said, and it’s likely that of those struck in the last decade, more than 2,000 have survived.

Jim Segneri, an official with Lightning Strike and Electric Shock Survivors International, a support group based in North Carolina, said that the numbers of victims likely are greatly underreported.

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He said that while some members of his group found the commercial “funny,” to him the caricature-ish treatment of the phobia was offensive.

“For the survivors I know, it is distressing,” said Segneri. “It’s the portrayal of people who have gone through an awful lot; in that light, that kind of upsets us.”

While fear of electricity is a common symptom for strike victims, said Segneri and safety council medical specialist Mary Ann Cooper, lightning strikes and other forms of electric shock are associated with serious physical conditions.

“Many survivors suffer brain injury, post-traumatic stress disorder, and chronic pain syndromes from the nerve injuries that lightning commonly causes,” Cooper said in a safety council news release.

In the release, the council suggested that the commercial might at least provide “an opportunity” to rout the “myth” that rubber wheels provide a measure of protection against lightning.

The commercial, however, doesn’t address that point, since it isn’t clear whether the victim was riding the motorcycle when it happened. Jensenius said the safety council “did not find any documentation of the incident” involving a man identified in the commercial as Seth Thomas. A TV station reported that he was a resident of North Carolina.

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Said Segneri, “I don’t know anything about the gentleman. I wish him the best of luck.”

Neither the Lightning Safety Council nor Segneri suggested that the commercial was a flash point for a highly charged debate.

Of Wallbox, Segneri said, “I don’t think they set out to offend anybody.”

Wallbox officials did not respond to a request for comment.