We all know the frustrating feeling of going to watch a YouTube video, only to click on it and find an ad. No one really likes ads, but there is one kind of ad that makes me more mad than anything, and that is insurance commercials. I understand the irony of me saying insurance commercials are bad when the point of commercials is to get people to talk about your product, but insurance commercials are so bad, and have been that way for so long, I must address them.
The main reason insurance commercials suck is that they are all the same. They all try to use comedy to make insurance seem a lot more exciting than it is, and it worked at first. I remember being a kid and thinking these commercials were funny and good, but as I got older, I realized how formulaic they were, and how they are all kind of the same. None of the commercials really stand out, which isn’t good from a marketing stance. You want to be able to stand out, so when people are researching insurance brands they’ll remember you, but when all the commercials are in the same comedic style, it won’t do that.
A big part of these commercials is the mascot for the given brand. The one thing I will give props to is how these companies have created an image for their insurance. For Progressive it’s Flo, for Geico it’s the gecko, and for Liberty Mutual it’s the buddy cop duo with the emu. They have done a good job with branding these, but these characters are insufferable, and unfunny.
They also frequently overuse these characters so they just kind of get stale and old. Progressive brought in the character of Flo in 2008, and she has been a consistent mascot and in most of the commercials for 13 years. Even in her case, there is only so much you can do with a character like that. Flo can still be the mascot of Progressive, but they need to start doing some more commercials and marketing campaigns that are different from the ones they’ve done over the past 13 years.
Another personal reason why I don’t like these commercials is how unfunny they are. I know that comedy is subjective, but I really don’t see most of Gen Z finding these funny. This is another issue, because when you are selling your product with comedy, and people don’t find it funny, it’s really hard to sell your product.
The final thing I want to talk about is how hard it is to market to Gen Z. Gen Z grew up constantly being surrounded by ads on the internet. I can really only speak from experience, but I feel like I am kind of numb to ads at this point, and in commercials if you don’t truthfully tell me why I should buy your product, there really isn’t a reason for me to do so. I’m not going to buy insurance because a gecko told me to.
I don’t really know how insurance companies can fix their commercials, but I do know they need to change. I don’t really know how much further the comedy can go for these companies. It just feels stale and overused.
Mark Warren can be reached at [email protected]
Michael Fawcett
The "Limu Emu and Doug" ads for Liberty add an additional level of stupidity. They've taken years establishing that "Doug" is a moron. Then they say you should buy the insurance he's selling. Why? He's an idiot!
Sauro Camiletti
Sauro C My question is simply this: Do the marketing people really think that these profoundly annoying ads increase sales? Flo and her people look like they escaped from a psych ward; the Liberty ads are incomprehensible except for the fact that, apparently, we already have more insurance than we need; and the mayhem guy runs around destroying property. Enough said.
Dennis Kiriakatos
Now i know why they ask me if i went to College ? You have to be brain dead to watch those commercials
Ben Dover
I hardly believe ANYONE finds insurance commercials funny. The "comedy" most of these commercials or ads use, whether its Progressive, Liberty, State Farm, Geico, or whatever, is bland, basic, milk-toast "humor" that would make anyone listening or watching roll their eyes. I already hate the fact that there's way too many insurance commercials out there. Like, I can sum up America's ads with just three words: cars, medicine, and insurance; and insurance takes up about 80% of all of the ads. I would've tolerated the ads more if they were at least humorous and wacky and tried to be entertaining, maybe a catchy jingle at least, but no, it's just basic, sanitized, and uninteresting word vomit where some gecko or some guy sitting next to the Statue of Liberty has some boring and uninteresting conversation with you and they expect you to laugh. I just wished they would all disappear honestly, because ads are so boring these days. And by the way, I just have to say that Liberty has THE WORST ads and commercials. They're the least funny and are probably the most stupid. Like seriously, who gives a crap about giving your ugly dog a customized backpack, or some guy doing uninteresting sh!t with his emu. Whoever laughs at that garbage has no sense of humor.
W
So true! All the commercials are lane and annoying and don’t entice me to purchase anything they sell.
lasaga
imagine how much of a better reputation these insurance companies would be if they didn't waste so much money on on making and jamming the air waves with mind numbing audiovisual claptrap and directed most of it towards the services they're contractually obligated to provide
Steve og
Ot5's not just Gen Z: it's everyone. "Don't pay for more than you need". How damn stupid. Of course nobody is going to pay for more than they need. Why would I want to buy car insurance from a talking Australian lizard? Flo has just gotten old and, by the way, I'm a boomer and I find these ads stupid, irritating and I won't buy from any of them.
W
Lololol well said
Karl Blessing
In light of the blatant stupidity of these commercials I have to question the intelligence and competence of the people working at these companies and therefore the quality of their products. Commercials rarely persuade me to buy a product, but they do persuade me not to buy from a given company.
Jeff tu
Touché to that. Liberty, progressive and geico can - and do - ruin my watching experience whether it’s TV or online. Last year Liberty cold called me about insurance and I told the caller I could never support those ads and would not do business with them. Small beans to them but it felt empowering to stand on principal.