Insurance Ad Review series: Progressive
How could anyone not
like Flo? She's quirky and sweet, even if lacking a certain professionalism
about insurance. But that serves only to endear her more to the indiscriminate
insurance buyer. Nothing creepy or insulting about Flo’s presentation; just a
pleasant greeting and...
“Oh yeah, we've got
that!”
And she jumps to retrieve the boxed product from its shelf.
Product? Insurance, a product... like a loaf of gluten-free bread
or replacement wiper blades for your car?
This is one case where promotion of insurance service disserves the public. May as well speak
of your doctor's care as a commodity; another medical product warehoused for
distribution by retailers of health. There may be certain parallels or
similarities in good business practice and ethics. But properly speaking, one's relationship to a consultant–whether
for health or financial well-being– is as the client not consumer of goods. We're talking about a contract, even
a partnership... at every stage of the insurance agreement, from shopping to
application and purchase, to claim settlement and policy replacement.
Pretending simply to
grab a package from the shelf... No, that concept of insurance is just wrong
from the start. And Progressive company marketeers must know better. Full disclosure:
I used to represent this insurer as agent (for commercial and recreational
vehicles mostly), so I certainly know better of Progressive. But it's an error
perpetuated by the whole insurance industry, ever since Allstate proposed to
skip standard agency distribution and sell insurance like hats or umbrellas
from behind a counter at the Sears Department Store. They were successful
enough that others followed –20th Century, Colonial Penn, Wawanesa–eventually
even skipping the local store or office: so that all a client ever knows of his
insurer is a different voice on the telephone whenever daring to call and wait yet
again for a turn at the virtual phone desk or service center. Finally,
agency-based insurers aimed to join the fray, urging neighborhood agents to
relinquish policy service to national phone centers so they could peddle
pre-packaged programs instead.
Lately, the Progressive Insurance Company ad campaign has taken
a turn away from Flo as their human face to the public, substituting an utterly
fake persona-- one very annoying cartoon character in the form of...
No! Say it isn't so. Sweet Flo is replaced by a box:
 |
| The Box |
See also Boxed Wedding
Hey, they even let you make your own Progressive Auto
box
Somehow, it was inevitable, I suppose– rather like the Fairy
Tale Princess turned cruelly into a toad or worse, a frozen TV dinner package. Makes about as much sense as boxed insurance.
Compare yet another opinion: Flo
Gets More Company
You too can make yourself up to look like Flo’s bobblehead
doll:
Flo
Insurance Girl Costume
