Just 15 Minutes Less of Car Insurance Ads Will Save You 15% or More of Your Sanity
Most of us, if pressed,
would probably agree that TV commercials have improved in terms of their
quality and appeal over the years; and my guess is that most of us would
attribute the use of comedy for much of that appeal. Some do it better than others and some do it
worse and more often than others. And
it’s the latter that work the gg’s
grouchiness into a lather. So
many of today’s commercials are repetitive, playing over and over and over
again until we the viewers know the lines by heart. Take my favorite (or least favorite as the
case might be): GEICO. They must have advertising deals with every
network. I cannot remember watching any
TV show in recent memory without being bombarded by three or four GEICO
commercials. You know the ones I’m
talking about – those inane “everyone knows that, but did you
know …”
commercials. And here’s another
one: those USAA commercials where the
young boy thanks his mother for making him safe and protecting his future or
his father or grandfather for their service when all they did was buy a life
insurance policy (from USAA of course).
And then there are those ads for Progressive Insurance featuring Flo,
but at least those seem to have a bit of a variety and are not the same old ads
played over and over at virtually every commercial break. I suppose we
should expect those kinds of repetitive ads from insurance companies
since they seem to have all the money; and they obviously have the best marketing
experts who’ve told them that this sort of constant, repetitive advertising
works. But before you get to thinking
that insurance companies have a monopoly on this type of advertising, think about CIALIS.
There is a sameness about those ads as well, along with the obligatory
warning to see a doctor if you have an erection lasting more than 4 hours. (Hey, all you fellow geezers out there – honk
if you plan to call your doc the next (first?) time you get a 4-hour
boner. I didn’t think so!)
So what can we do about it, my fellow grouches? Well, we can do our usual and just, well,
grouch, or we can take affirmative action.
Frankly, the gg plans to continue
to grouch whenever one of these repetitive ads airs on my favorite TV
channels. But I’m also going to propose
this solution: Since 15 seems to be the
popular number, I propose that any time an ad that is repeated more than once
every 15 days on any TV network program subjects the advertiser or its agency
to a fine equal to 15% of their advertising budget for that 15 day period. And then there’s that other trustworthy
remedy – the remote.
gg