Progressive Commercial

I don't know about anybody else, but if I see that Progressive (insurance) commercial again where that dorky chick yells "Power to the People!" I just don't know what I'm gonna do. 
 
Do annoying commercials really inspire people to buy their insurance?  Don't all sane people just want to smack her?

I don't know about insurance but T-Mobile is making me regret I am with AT&T. Yeah, I know technically I am married. 

 Progressive commercial - MUST PUSH MUTE BUTTON! Yes I want to smack her. Smack the red lipstick off her lips.

I never could imagine how such a person could possibly sell anything to anybody who wasn't also a dork.  I would think anyone with any intelligence at all, when meeting a person like her, would immediately run the other way as fast as they could go. 
 
Maybe Progressive feels that intelligent people can't be fooled into buying their insurance and they can only sucker stupid people into buying it.  It makes you wonder about their insurance and what the company's opinion is of their potential clientele.

I'd like to run her over with her 900 V twin.  VROOMMMMMMMMM!

Unless I'm dense, I fail to see the point in some of the Progressive and Geico televison adverts. In the 70's I started out as a dual major in Journalism and Visual Arts fed on a heavy diet of Bernays,Lippmann,and McLuhan influences on mass media and public opinion. The point of a commercial is to instill brand recognition and promotion of a product, not comic relief. Sure, both companies ad campaigns have made us p.o.'d to the point that we remember their names. So what? Brand recognition among insurance companies is not a marketing point, their value, stability, and services are. Allstate runs an effective campaign that enforces their there looking out for you 24/7. State Farm prefers the old IMB strategy of "We're State Farm" no explanation needed. Then we have an aussie accented lizard, money with eyeballs,caveman,and a patent imbecile airhead promoting Geico and Progressive.
 
The airhead at least conveys the user customizability and tailoring as if it was something  conceptually new and innovative, the rest? I'm lost here folks. From what I understand, she's a fantastic commedianne in real life and this is a great break and national exposure for her on Progressive's dime, otherwise it fails on convincing me that I need to change to Progressive.

So easy a caveman can do it? Do what? Buy insurance ? As a fictitious intellectually challenged minority? Substitute a marginalized race or demographic for this campaign and watch the lawsuits fly. Whoever formulated this campaign apparently studied Goebbels.

The money with eyeballs? Huh? The point? Saving?

Ahh the lizard, wonder if our friends in OZ have an issue with this. Can you imagine the lizard promoting Outback Steakhouse as his next gig? Again, what's the point? Raising the bar on animated body languange and neurolinguistics in commercials? Think Pixar's got that base covered.

Admit it, you recognize this lady and associate her with Progressive like it or not. You're mutually discussing her character and intent of bodily harm. Somebody has effectively done their job on that point. But does it sell insurance, convey trust in the brand or revulsion with the messenger?

Well, how often do you actually think about your car insurance?  I wager we've spent more time talking about the lady than we would normally think about our insurance in a year.  And GEICO has done the same thing--when I was a kid, my retired master sergeant father had GEICO--it at one time stood for Government Employees Insurance Company--and I'd never heard of it.  Now it's all cool.  Their nutty ads did what they wanted them to do.  Progressive is shooting for a young market that would normally be doing local minimums-only coverage; they probably want the same thing.

Davydd


I don't know about insurance but T-Mobile is making me regret I am with AT&T. Yeah, I know technically I am married. 

I like it when you say things.
 

She's memorable, that's for sure.  My prediction is that she'll be the next network TV comedy series star.

RubyRose


She's memorable, that's for sure.  My prediction is that she'll be the next network TV comedy series star.

....or the next one to take her clothes off for Playboy.

RubyRose


She's memorable, that's for sure.  My prediction is that she'll be the next network TV comedy series star.

I think she's a cousin of Rose from Two-and-a-Half Men.

Hey, Watching Peyton and Eli Manning hawk the Direct TV NFL package while various scenes of NFL Cheerleaders dance in the Hi-Def background, almost made me miss the Hi-Def fine prrint that the cost of that package is over $250 ! That's pretty good 'slight of hand' selling (pun intended!).

RubyRose


She's memorable, that's for sure.  My prediction is that she'll be the next network TV comedy series star.

 
She's a "real" actress...she played a white trash character in an episode of "Kath & Kim" this past season and I think I recall reading somewhere that she had or has a recurring role on "Mad Men".
Brad

RubyRose


She's memorable, that's for sure.  My prediction is that she'll be the next network TV comedy series star.

She already is a stand-up comedienne, so it wouldn't surprise me in the least.

I don't much care one way or the other about her.  I know that when I was shopping for car insurance the quotes I got from Progressive, Geico, and (what's the other one?) were MUCH less coverage than I already had, which is how they were cheaper.  When I finally got them to compare identical coverage to what I had, I found that AAA was about 1/4 the cost.

Her name is Stephanie Courtney, and she's very pretty without all the "progressive" around her (but of course, she IS an actress):

This article sums up - almost word-for-word - my feelings about Flo.  I also have the same bizarre attraction to her. 

I think she ends up coming across as part peppy high school cheerleader, part Spuds McKenize.

 Doesn't this young lady share a work environment with WJ ? I wonder how she fits his "criteria" ?  Too bad he's in Sheepdip, Idaho, celebrating the Nuts-Off Festival, or whatever the attraction in Basque country is..."Old Faithful", maybe?

If we are lucky he will chime in with his professional evaluation of her contribution to his well-being!

I don't know the actress portraying the agent for Progressive insurance so I won't diss her however the character she portrays is hideous and I can not bear to even hear her inane retorts in the fantasy that is the Progressive store.

I'd like to run her over with her 900 V twin.  VROOMMMMMMMMM!
+1.............:>)

A little surprised to hear all of the venom for the Progressive commercials.  But then, that is how I used to feel about many of the Old Navy ads, so who am I to judge.

And although I'm not ready to go ring shopping like Travelin Man, I do find the character Flo appealing.

buffetbuster


A little surprised to hear all of the venom for the Progressive commercials.  But then, that is how I used to feel about many of the Old Navy ads, so who am I to judge.

And although I'm not ready to go ring shopping like Travelin Man, I do find the character Flo appealing.

 
Like buffetbuster, I also like Flo.  That affinity would not induce me to change my auto coverage to Progressive, but then again, I am not their target audience.   Clearly their target audience is the under-30 crowd.   If that works for Progressive, more power to them.
 
On the other hand, Geico's new "googly eye money" commercials are the ones that really annoy me.  The gecko is okay, the cavemen are tolerable, but the googly eye money is beyond my ken as to how this would appeal to somebody.  And, on that topic, can anyone else think of another company besides Geico that runs three distinctly different ad campaigns simultaneously for the same product?
 
 

I have Progressive, but am going to switch to something else. It's less expensive than GEICO and State Farm, but I can get a better deal elsewhere. Sorry, Flo! (I have to admit, I kind of like that character too)

I just wonder what it is about the insurance industry that makes quirky commercials de rigueur. 

The only other company I can think of that runs simultaneous ad campaigns this way is Anheuser Busch.  I probably can't do the specifics to get three at the same time, but between the Bud Bowl, Spuds McKenzie, "Real Men of Genius" (which, by the way, have been going on for almost 10 years now!), the Clydesdales, the "Wassssup" guys, the frogs, the lizards, etc. - some of them had to overlap in some way.

buffetbuster


A little surprised to hear all of the venom for the Progressive commercials.  But then, that is how I used to feel about many of the Old Navy ads, so who am I to judge.

And although I'm not ready to go ring shopping like Travelin Man, I do find the character Flo appealing.

Do you also share Travelin Man's previous TV pitch-woman crush?

Get it straight...

THIS was my previous TV pitch-woman crush. Flo vs. The Doritos girl would be an epic battle.

Flo = manic pixie dream girl.

"The Manic Pixie Dream Girl exists solely in the fevered imaginations of sensitive writer-directors to teach broodingly soulful young men to embrace life and its infinite mysteries and adventures. The Manic Pixie Dream Girl is an all-or-nothing-proposition. Audiences either want to marry her instantly (despite The Manic Pixie Dream Girl being, you know, a fictional character) or they want to commit grievous bodily harm against them and their immediate family."

The Travelin Man


Get it straight...

THIS was my previous TV pitch-woman crush. Flo vs. The Doritos girl would be an epic battle.

Wait a second!
You told me it was her

wanderingjew

The Travelin Man


Get it straight...

THIS was my previous TV pitch-woman crush. Flo vs. The Doritos girl would be an epic battle.

Wait a second!
You told me it was her

Are we talking right or left?

Obviously the one on the right. I'm pretty sure TTM is straight.

Poverty Pete
 

I'm pretty sure TTM is straight.

 

"My ex-wife and I agree."