Hump Day!

The Geico commercial with the camel is so popular, a local middle school here has banned students from imitating the camel's catch phrase, "hump day". This is a great way of teaching our youngsters freedom of speech. No report yet on disallowing vulgarity. 

The Geico commercial has received more than 15 million hits on YouTube. I must admit that I love it, too. It wouldn't be so good if it were a computer generated camel, but this is a camel that is not camera shy. He has been in several movies.

Geico has a tendency to create fame for animals, like the gecko and the talking, driving pig. But one is computer generated and the other is a puppet. They also created a man who is made of money. Its a brilliant advertising strategy, considering that they want to hit all drivers of all ages, so they create characters that each age group will like.

Most companies have a certain demographic they target in order to meet their goals. Geico has retired the money stacks with eyes, as well as the caveman. Apparently, they weren't getting the job done.

Gimmickry is no stranger to the insurance biz. Progressive Insurance has Flo, a female character who is normally depicted in an insurance store with boxes on shelves, representative of the vast array of policies available, but occasionally they have her portray a sort of love interest for policy holders in trouble.

Allstate insurance has children speaking to their parents in the deep voice of the Allstate spokesman, while State Farm insurance has commercials depicting agents who are sort of like genies, who appear when a policy holder says, "Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there." State Farm also features Green Bay Packers quarterback, Aaron Rodgers, who's touchdown dance has been stolen by the agency, who now use it to depict their "Discount Double Check". Rogers is always mocked by a "cheese head", along with a variety of characters and scenarios.

How about just telling us why we should choose one company over another? Because I think the rates are pretty much the same for the majority of the big brand name insurance companies. I guess there are people who actually walk into an insurance office looking for Flo, Aaron Rodgers, the Gecko or a talking camel.

Advertising is just plain weird. I think if I were going to write a commercial for car insurance, I would depict people who's lives have been destroyed by going with a competitor. Maybe have the terminator as my character, threatening that if they don't buy my insurance, we'll go back in time and kill their great grandmother. "If you don't buy our insurance, you will cease to exist"!

See you tomorrow.

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