Aflac Presents My Special Aflac Duck™ at The Atlantic's Children and Cancer: An Atlantic Forum

Company Plans to Provide Comforting Robot Duck to Children Free of Charge to Help Them Cope With Cancer

News provided by

May 22, 2018, 04:48 ET

COLUMBUS, Ga., May 22, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Aflac, the leading provider of voluntary insurance sales at the worksite in the U.S., today presented its innovative social robot, My Special Aflac Duck™, at the Children and Cancer Forum in Washington, D.C. The forum, hosted by Atlantic Media and underwritten by Aflac for the second consecutive year, brought together a diverse audience of experts, survivors, researchers and families impacted by childhood cancer, including Dr. Kavita Dhodapkar, a pediatric hematologist-oncologist at the Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center of Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, who spoke about the latest developments in immunotherapy.

The event included panels from practitioners, survivors and government officials. During a special session produced by Aflac, Aflac Senior Vice President, Chief Brand and Communications Officer Catherine Hernandez-Blades and Sproutel Chief Executive Officer Aaron Horowitz provided a 10-minute presentation on My Special Aflac Duck. The sophisticated comforting robot, which is the result of nearly two years of research conducted by Sproutel, was introduced at the Consumer Electronics Show in January in Las Vegas and received top honors for Best in Show. The segment, which was streamed live on Facebook Live, can be seen here.

"Aflac is excited about the My Special Aflac Duck program and what we believe it will accomplish in helping children cope with the treatments they endure during their cancer journey," Hernandez-Blades said. "We would like to thank The Atlantic for the opportunity to underwrite today's Children and Cancer forum as Aflac continues to facilitate a national conversation about pediatric cancer."

According to the National Cancer Society, as many as 16,000 children are diagnosed with cancer in America every year. Aflac hopes to initiate delivery of My Special Aflac Duck at select hospitals beginning in September, before expanding nationwide in winter 2018-2019. For more information, go to aflacchildhoodcancer.org.

About Aflac
When a policyholder gets sick or hurt, Aflac pays cash benefits fast. For more than six decades, Aflac insurance policies have given policyholders the opportunity to focus on recovery, not financial stress. In the United States, Aflac is the leader in voluntary insurance sales at the worksite. Through its trailblazing One Day Pay^SM initiative, for eligible claims, Aflac U.S. can process, approve and electronically send funds to claimants for quick access to cash in just one business day. In Japan, Aflac is the leading provider of medical and cancer insurance and insures 1 in 4 households. Aflac insurance products help provide protection to more than 50 million people worldwide. For 12 consecutive years, Aflac has been recognized by Ethisphere as one of the World's Most Ethical Companies. In 2018, Fortune magazine recognized Aflac as one of the 100 Best Companies to Work for in America for the 20th consecutive year and included Aflac on its list of World's Most Admired Companies for the 17th time. Aflac Incorporated is a Fortune 500 company listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol AFL. To find out more about Aflac and One Day Pay^SM, visit aflac.com or aflac.com/espanol.

Aflac herein means American Family Life Assurance Company of Columbus and American Family Life Assurance Company of New York.

Media contact – Jon Sullivan, 706.763.4813 or [email protected]

Analyst and investor contact – David A. Young, 706.596.3264 or 800.235.2667, FAX 706.324.6330, or [email protected]

SOURCE Aflac