Why Are There So Many Insurance Company Mascots?
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ส.ค. 2024
- For something so boring and typically hated, American insurance companies have some of the most bold and entertaining mascots and ad campaigns.
@Devnul's video: • The GEICO Cavemen: The...
(I said/spelled his name wrong in the video, really sorry D:)
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0:00 Intro
1:47 Flo from Progressive
4:36 Jake from State Farm
11:07 Allstate's Mayhem
12:58 Aflac Duck
14:29 The General (and his BFF Shaq)
17:23 Geico Gecko
18:42 Other Geico Characters
21:08 Geico Cavemen
23:40 Outro
24:38 Patron Shout-Out - บันเทิง
When I was a kid, I wanted to get car insurance from Progressive so badly because I wanted to see what were in the boxes
just empty
I am a sinner
@@No__direction__ don’t you mean Spongebob
wow, you must have been a total goober!
@@scottdoesntmatter4409 Rule of goober: If you say goober, you are the goober.
I would love a crossover fighting game with insurance mascots
15 minutes can save you 15% or more on car insurance, but it cAN'T SAVE YOU FROM THIS DOWN NEUTRAL!
@@AutumnRivers LMAOOOOOOOOO
And the losing fighter is forced to buy the winner's insurance
Like the meerkats
Aflac duck solos everyone
the geico gecko was unironically my favorite character when i was a kid. my granddad used to buy me geico promotional stickers/notepads/etc wherever he could because the gecko made me unreasonably happy
The duck one (lol I don't remember it's name) actually sent someone to my elementary school to give us duck themed toys and told us to tell our parents about their insurance. I barely remember the insurance slideshow but I was really happy about the toys. I went home and gave my parents a spiel about the duck guy. Now that I think about it, that feels like it shouldn't be allowed
@@mae8646 Aflac
I felt the same way about the gecko lmao. I think it was his big eyes that really appealed to my child brain
The gecko is my grandma and I’s favorite character to this day. We mail each other clip outs wherever we can find him!
GRANDDAD!!!!!
im almost certain flo from progressive was some sort of gay awakening for me
literally same
Same
Neat
oh.. that’s.. different 😇
Same actually, weird lol
I had a dream when I was little where Flo from Progressive kidnapped me inside a car dealership and I've hated her ever since
“u want insurance? Or els I kill u familia” *a familiar green bird stands far behind a tree as flo sweats*
Honestly Flo is annoying.
The actor who plays FakeJake looks real friendly. Agree with the over-corporate shit but I hope he's doing alright despite the backlash
You know... I a little bit wonder if some of the backlash to FakeJake is because he's black. I would not be surprised if there's a whole crowd of people claiming that it's wokeness gone mad
@@pandakatiefominz it probably is. even though the original Jake from statefarm ad was a gay joke.
@@pandakatiefominz I’m sure that’s part of it. There’s absolutely stuff to dislike about how corporate Jake became, coming from a genuine everyday local employee, the amount of backlash was definitely more intense than I believe it would have been if the replacement had been white. I doubt people would have even noticed if they’d just gotten a similar looking white guy
@@annalivingtv they shoulda gave him a different name and replaced the husband and wife actors as well
Then it wouldn't be a replacement but a part 2 instead
I mean why would they call them again with the same conversation lol
I always thought this too. The original guy is a chubby white working class dad type but the new guy a good looking light skinned actor. I think if he was a good looking white actor he still would have gotten hate but him being black probably made right wing dad's even more irked.
I remember seeing the Progressive commercials as a kid and thinking that you literally DID buy things like car insurance in a box at a store.
I thought exactly the same thing as a kid 😆
YES
SAME-
fun fact, i used to have a fear of the geico gecko as a kid. i have no idea why but i was always scared he was gonna show up in my room late at night lol
He’s coming for you
“Prepare for battle”
Bruh same 😭 some sort of uncanny valley effect or smth
This gives me a strong Childhood fear of Danny Devito vibe lol
*Geico gecko slowly creeping up the foot of your bed*
*Whispers* "you can save 15% or more with Geico"
@@bootybuttcheeks "AAAAAAAAAAAA!!! MOMMY!!!!"
The Mayhem commercials are great. They're easily the most creative, funny, dynamically-shot, and most importantly, anxiety-inducing commercials of the bunch, which I think is probably the best tactic if selling insurance is the goal.
is the moon freezing? yeah
and hes hot
You're right and I've never even realized it. They are the only commercials that actually made me think about getting insurance. All the other ones just annoyed the crap out of me with their annoying mascots, especially Flo
I’ve never really seen the adds but the premise for Mayhem makes so much more sense then the other companies that just have mascots doing random nonsense before slapping there logo on the end.
Mayhem has always been my favorite insurance mascot, I will always watch the commercials he’s in
You always find the weirdest things that I just accepted as normal and never thought about, then when i see your video im like "huh yeah that is actually pretty bizarre"
I feel the same way about anime. WTF man!
I love your Tamagotchi pfp. Pizalinatchi is my favorite, lol.
This video made me realize that insurance companies were and still are trying way too hard to make us buy something that none of us want to have to deal with.
Considering how bland most advertising is now, I'll take these any day of the week.
Making tons of profit and making ads all while easing your rates
Second only to big pharma advertising which is primarily shown on cable news networks as the network's target demographic is seniors.
@@MZRFaith Actually insurance costs are going UP to cover the costs of producing these annoying advertisments.
I'm all for it, it gives us something actually interesting in terms of ads which is something I'll always be happy about with the current climate of way too over the top or completely bland ads
"Have you ever met a 12 year old who understands premiums and indemnity?"
I'm 32 and I don't even understand them. Every time I need to fill out insurance paperwork I have to go to my mom's house to have her explain what some of that means because she worked in insurance for years... and doesn't even fully understand some of that stuff either.
Oh good, I’m glad I’m not the only one then
I don’t have the slightest idea what those words are😂
I look up what these things mean and even then I still don’t fully understand, in fact I usually just end up with more questions.
its supposed to confuse you so you get fucked
My sister absolutely despises Flo. Says she's way too overly cheery and helpful. She swears if she ever met Flo irl she'd deck her just because of how happy she always looks.
So whenever I check the mail to find a Progressive ad addressed to my sister, I always hand it off while saying "looks like Flo sent you another letter", just to see her seethe
You, sir or madam, are peak troll.
I love that they gave Flo goons.
“ducks, khakis, and shaquille o’neal”
*the first sentence hooked me*
Jake from State Farm will forever be on my mind
@@No__direction__ same lmao
There was also Erin Esurance from Esurance who was in their commercials back in the mid 2000s. The company decided to retire her due to people on the Internet making inappropriate pictures of her and decreasing popularity.
Erin was so cool, she looked more like a character from a Cartoon Network series than an insurance mascot. Sucks that she got kicked
Busted a lot of nuts to that back in the day.
OMG I remeber her!
damn I loved the esurance ads as a kid, shame they got rid of the mascot
What's worse is that they didn't even replace her with anything better or as good, they kinda just abandoned mascots altogether and made very bland commercials. I feel like at some point Esurance has to acknowledge how much Erin is sorely missed (I mean Domino's was willing to bring back the Noid for a bit, even after the whole shooting incident), maybe even kind of lean into her sex appeal a little.
I cannot explain the fixation I had on the General as a 4th grader. I just wanted my own little guy.
Rules for marketing in the early 00s: it if looks like a fever dream… you’re getting it right
Which is why I miss them
Here’s an idea: maybe you could dive into the nostalgia of the DVD interactive menus and how they don’t exist as extremely anymore. Long gone are the days of the Lion King 1 1/2 dvd menu and the games you could play
That’s a great idea! Thanks for mentioning it :)
The Brady bunch style one from the Shrek 2 dvd pops up in my mind all the time. And the 20 minutes of ads before it that could only be fast forwarded, not skipped entirely.
@@gayandreckless yes!🤩
The bonus dvd’s for the first 2 Harry Potter movies had such fun games!
@@gayandreckless it's so funny how dvds have blocks for skiping the ads
The players (ones I've had anyway) have 4-5 skip buttons, fast forward, skip or nest scene, a 3rd idk what it's called but it's basically the same as 2, home menu and sometimes a second home menu button
Every DVD I've tried blocks 2 or 3 but never all the buttons from being pressed sometimes everything but fast forward is blocked or you can't do that but skip or home works
It's always amused me how they try to force you but always fall short by forgetting to block that one last option
Mayhem is the only one that ever made me go "oh, so this is why I should buy this insurance!"
Good advertising.
Babe!! It’s dream jelly!
I’m so interested in Flo’s life. I hope her sister gets her act together, such a brat.
In the UK, there was this advert for an insurance website called "Go Compare" where they had this opera singer burst into situations belting out "GO COMPARE" over and over. When I say people got SO SICK of him I mean they absolutely hated the guts of him. I remember my Dad swearing and cursing every time they ad came on because of how annoying it was. It was so bad that the company started a run of adverts where people set up elaborate traps to catch him before he could start singing. The Go Compare guy has had a bit of resurgence in the past few years, with admittedly more relaxed ads where you get to see more of the guy beneath the opera costume and less obnoxious singing 🤣
There was also the Money Supermarket advert where they had two separate ad campaigns, one featuring guys in denim booty shorts storming down a street in stupid high heels and another with a builder pole dancing which then culminated in a cross over ad where the guys in heels had a dance off with the pole dancing builders.
Adverts are weird, man 🤣
Let's not forget the meerkats of Compare The Market and their whole lore -_-
Hastings direct in the other hand, I loved and still remember the phone number off by heart
@@livjones2917 yeah but that’s adorable
Don’t forget Steven hawking making him get sucked by a black hole 😂
Oh! That's where horrible histories "God Compare" sketch comes from!
I prefer Mayhem over other mascots even though he's not more memorable than others but he's actually about why people get insurance
Also, I love seeing Shaq just do all sorts of random adverts. There's something just so incredibly wholesome about him. Whenever I see the big guy, he makes me smile.
Fun fact: the State Farm theme song, “Like A Good Neighbour”, was written by Barry Manilow. The only official release of the song is by Weezer who recorded it because State Farm sponsored one of their tours
In highschool there was a kid named Jake and for years, everyone called him Jake from State Farm every time anyone said his name. I imagine state Farm haunts his dreams, today.
My cousin’s name is Jake, he hates those commercials so much because he says anytime he gives his name to someone he knows at some point someone will make that joke.
My name used to be Jake and the commercial ruined my life
I remember that on a Sonic fansite was a Progressive Insurance advertisement featuring Sonic the Hedgehog himself, and I'd watch the heck out of that. Seeing that stark white superstore reminded me of it.
I think it actually featured Sonic 3 music!
@@Spongyboi897 Yep, the Sonic 3 invincibility theme. That ad blew my mind the first time I saw it.
Sonic the hedgehog is a canon entity inside the progressive insurance ads cinematic universe
Fun fact: Day Geckos, which is what the Geico gecko is styled after, can slough off their skin and drop their tails as defense mechanisms if they are scared or feel threatened. Imagine if they added that to their commercials.
It's funny that you talk about fandoms for insurance mascots, because I distinctly remember once encountering someone role-playing as the Geico Gekko in a multifandom LiveJournal RP community I was a part of as a teen.
believe it or not, the ads are subliminal marketing towards kids and teens. the people most likely to be shopping for insurance policies are adults with at least 1 kid, and the kid is going to latch on to the funny animal in the commercial and parrot back whatever catchphrases they say, until the parent(s) are conditioned to phone in and buy.
That's it- it was Geico, THEY TURNED ME INTO A FURRY
The liberty mutual commercial jingle is stuck in my head
liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty
She didn't even mention liberty mutual
@@EdnaK728 yeah my own brain mentioned it.
LIMU EMUUUUUU (and Doug)
My sister and I came up with this headcanon that the general and Shaq are roommates and that makes all the commercials a little extra funny for us. I also thought the penguin sidekick was fever dream that I made up for the longest time.
I miss that penguin 😣
"the money you could be saving by switching to Geico" mascot lasted way longer than it needed to, that stack of cash with googley eyes never made a sound, it just stared.
it is also worth noting that the Aflack duck made a cameo in the Series of Unfortunate Events movie.
An organization I was a member of in my Boy Scout days used a spoof of that for a promotional patch
Well that's some ASOUE trivia I never knew-
I have been watching this channel for months now. I have no idea what to call this genre of content, but I’m glad to be watching.
W pfp
Throwback/2000s nostalgia/childhood explained
Mini deep dives maybe?
i like to call them niche 2000s retrospectives bc this is also one of my fav genres of video :-)
@@getsouped RETROSPECTIVES, that’s the word I was looking for
Dear lord not the Erin Esurance saga
I found your account 2 months ago and omg I’m obsessed! This era will forever hold a special place in heart as well and I’m so happy I found a channel that talks about it! You’re doing great! And I’m sure your going to blow up soon!
Jake from state farm had a Halloween costume, ill never forget when I was getting on the bus this kid in front of me had on the state farm outfit and our bus driver squinted and looked at him and went, "who are you supposed to be??" And he went "I'm Jake...from stare farm" while pointing at his name badge. I was dead
I think a part of the general’s popularity issue is that even if it’s not explicit in the ads there are political and social implications from an old military man that limit his potential appeal, especially compared to animals which have a pretty much universal appeal
Also from a kid’s perspective it’s just boring but kids don’t buy insurance so I guess they might not care
I actually loved The General and his ads as a kid. Idk why though. I think it was purely due to him just being a little guy doing whatever and the banging jingle at the end.
bank when i was a kid gave away promo aflac ducks with little push-to-talk speakers. my friend's little brother repeated it as "ass-crack" though 😂
Insurance is an abstract concept that’s hard for many to easily grasp. So they rely on mascots and slogans to be remembered .
I was about to say how weird it is that in America insurance company’s have mascots, then I remembered that the uk absolutely has our own weird ones too and we are no better lol
omg hi tommie! it's soda. didn't expect to find you here!
@@sodagender omg heeyy
Like Gio Compario?
*quietly watches the channel runner not bring up the obvious reason people got upset about jake from state farm*
I can't believe you left out the progressive insurance pink haired spy cartoon that only had a couple of ads made... Potentially due to all the nsfw art that immediately started being made
It wasn't Progressive, it was Esurance. The character was called Erin Esurance.
Wait she’s from an add?😅
The best part about the General is that it's by far the best bang for the buck out of all of them, so from the way I see it, they never needed to be flashy. In a way it kind of reflects the company, simple and effective. Plus the fact that Shaq keeps doing the ads when you know he can't be making that much comparatively is just awesome lol
Hey! This is Devnul, thank you so much for the shoutout in this video! A lot of folks from your channel came over to check out the Caveman documentary, I really appreciate it! And awesome content, this video is fantastic
Please don't EVER forget the remix of "Somebody's Watching Me" that accompanied the Geico money stack mascot. That song had absolutely no business going as HARD as it did
There's a Progressive commercial from 2012 that features Sonic The Hedgehog, and at the end it shows very Sonic Unleashed-esque designs for Flo and Jamie after Flo wonders what the world would look like in Sonic's eyes. This could explain the inconsistent human designs in Sonic games, the anime/cartoon designs in games like Adventure and Unleashed are just what they look like in the eyes of Sonic, and I guess most of his friends as well, while in reality they look like regular human beings.
i cant decide whether to be happy or unbelievably depressed that american culture is basically just ad campaigns
laugh to hide the pain
Its silly looking back at all of these bc i remember being excited when I saw a new one was playing. But its kinda weird bc ig i remember them selling insurance but I definitely never fully comprehended that until this video
In the UK we have a company called Compare the market who’s mascots are two Russian meerkats called Aleksandr and Sergei. The first ad was basically what the first Geico ad sounds like with Aleksandr complaining that Compare the market is getting confused with his company, Compare the meerkat. The two have been in multiple series of ads since including one where they basically raise a child together
Even though it wasn’t insurance related but still in the financial realm, the free credit report ads had me singing about debt and credit at the age of 13
Surely I can't be the only person who lowkey had a crush for Mayhem
The Geico one turned up a similar ad campaign in the UK.
An insurance comparison site Compare The Market created Compare The Meerkat along with a collection of animated meerkats and merchandise.
That ad campaign is still running now and appears to have a very strong lore to them, with such things as the two meerkat business partners starting a family and eventually working for the company that compares the market they once competed with to compare meerkats!
@@rainbowpearlvlogsandanimations yeah it’s pretty fun
@@rainbowpearlvlogsandanimations And now the wombat nephew is ruining the crap out of poor Sergei's life!
It's interesting that you bring up the fact that many insurance companies try to archive most of their commercials and mascots for fans of the ad campaigns, but then you have eSurance who has seemingly gone on to completely ignore that Erin Esurance ever existed because some people on the Internet decided to make some rather (in a light term) "interesting" art of her. I'm surprised Erin wasn't brought up in this video, but that honestly could be saved for a different discussion video.
I always thought the geico gecko sounded Australian rather than British.
Ngl I remember all of these mascots, even the original Jake. Glad to see a lot of them are still around in today’s commercials.
I didn't even remember AllState existed until you showed the original AllState guy with the deep voice on screen, I do not remember Mayhem commercials at all lmao
Okay but Flo from Progressive haunted me as a child
Im glad Im not the only one who has waking up to George Lopez re-runs at 2am as a formative experience. Great vid as always!
I babysat the neighbor's son when I was a teen, he had a big hyperfixation on the Hump Day Camel for months and it was torture. It didn't even have to be Wednesday! He got himself a shirt with a camel that said Hump Day and wore it for a solid week. Kid was wild, hope he's okay wherever he wound up
Something I noticed revently, was Liberty Mutual used to be the only one with calm/informative ads and no wacky mascot.
But a few years ago they started using an emu and a bumbling detective as some weird ass buddy cop duo & I kinda hate them
Although not a mascot but I loved how AAA insurance got RICK ASTLEY to perform “Never gonna give you up” for their ad hahaha it was so iconic
I live in the UK and insurance ads are quite common here. There are these ads with meerkats. The ads focus on different things but one of those is insurance.
I work for an insurance company that doesn’t have a cool mascot and I’m pretty sure that’s why no one has ever heard of us
Been selling insurance for the last ten years. Jake from State Farm is an actual dude. I used to work at corporate; and there is a bar nearby that has his khakis from the commercial framed on the wall.
11:18 My uncle has actually met the guy who plays Mayhem, said he’s a really nice dude. He’s had half his thumb on one hand amputated and tries not to get shots that linger on that hand for too long.
Random fact: Geico’s Ad Agency is The Martin Agency, located in Richmond, Virginia, not far from where I live (Midlothian, Chesterfield County, VA)
me too
I felt that George Lopez reruns at 2am thing in my soul. I watched way too much Nick @ Nite when I was a kid. Also I guess the idea behind Bad Luck Brian in that General commercial is that kids who were sharing those memes are old enough to drive now.
I would love a video about fast food restaurant mascots! Especially in ads. I mean look at the Jack-in-a-box mascot ads craze.
I always had this weird dislike of the jack in the box guy, he just feels off to me. Not nearly as bad as the creepy ass plastic king creature in the burger king ads. Its suprising that out of all the fast food spawn, the least creepy is the clown
To say nothing of the Burger King and Ronald McDonald
I feel like the same could easily be said for credit card commercials, Specifically Capital One. I remember them doing the viking ads for many years going through many variations before slowly replacing them with William Shatner.
Vikings was JG Wentworth
Can you link the video on the cavemen in the description? I just feel like it'd make it easier for people to find. Great video as always!
I forgot to OOPS- it's linked now!
Progressive Insurance has always been in the back of my mind solely because of the Sonic the Hedgehog ad.
Geico also had the fake Rod Serling guy played who asked things like “Can switching to Geico save you fifteen percent on your car insurance? Does [insert non-sequitur situation]?” And then smash cut to whatever ridiculous situation he said.
I distinctly remember one in that series that featured Foghorn Leghorn, and I thought it was hilarious
Honestly, bringing back the actual Jake was obviously the right play. Him not being an actor is part of the charm. It's always amazing how companies always manage to make the wrong decisions.
BABY WAKE UP ITS THE NEW DREAM JELLY!!!
when i was a kid we had a little white duck plush with a button on its wing to make it say aflac
Maybe it's just because I haven't had cable in years, but I never knew about the Mayhem ads. I just knew that man with the smooth, smooth deep voice. Always loved hearing him speak.
I could already recognise these from ads! They’re everywhere!
New video time let’s go. I still can’t believe they tried to make a sitcom for the cavemen I remember seeing those commercials all the time as a kid
At my internship some production guys nick named me "Jake from state Farm" because I wore what he wore all the time.
I would cross oceans for Flo
Also the betrayal of Jake from State Farm is equivalent to when the Verizon guy switched to Sprint or whatever
omg, the humpday ad made my dad the most annoying person ever. he would joke abt it every wednesday
Same LMAO
I'm personally offended that Erin Esurance didn't even get a mention
A lot of people forget she ever existed because a lot of perverts with too much free time on their hands made x-rated drawings of her and spread them all over the internet
Only been subbed a little while and already I know you'll go far.
Fun fact: my ex-girlfriend's dad used to date a woman that worked for AFLAC, and he always said it like the duck- and after they broke up, AFLAC began the ads and branding of the AFLAC duck instead of just using the acronym. So he might be the reason they started that ad campaign.
I had a trainer at an old job who supposedly knew the real Jake from State Farm. He claimed that Jake had to quit working at State Farm because no one would take him seriously after the commercial.
Geico has to be the winner overall as they have multiple different characters and campaigns that are iconic but the og Jake from State Farm is the most iconic commercial by itself, it's burned into my brains from seeing it so much over the years. I forgot about the stack of money and that reminded me of a childhood memory of me cutting that out of a magazine or smth to decorate my notebook for school. I actually have a plushie of the Gecko that I found at a thrift store so I might be bias tho.
i literally had an aflac duck stuffed animal as a kid, it even said aflac when you squeezed it’s wing
The best insurance ad I’ve ever seen is a geico ad in collaboration with Tetris, the geico gecko is in a Tetris game as one of the pieces and is slowly descending to the rest of the pieces, only to realize that he fits perfectly, and that when he lands the area that he lands in will create a line, thus making the whole area, him included disapear. After the gecko notices this, he says something like “you have got to be kidding me” and then the ad fades out with ominous music, heavily implying that the gecko will imminently die
I found the ad th-cam.com/video/VcmlUDHvs8w/w-d-xo.html
This is precisely the type of content I need in my life. I’d also like to shout out LIMU EMU (and doug)
Once they brought shaq in they should've just got a real guy to be the general.
Mascots for insurance companies really know how to entertain consumers more than encouraging them to buy insurance. Where I live there's a company called NJM whose ads are focusing on the insurance and not the jingles or mascots. Their commercials are hilarious.
Honestly, the mascots that represent competing insurance companies are the best parts of the ads. I just kind of hate the “We’re the best, everyone else is trash” mentality the ads had.
If I see the NJM "haha no mascot so quirky XD" ad one more time im going to lose my shit
@@LonelyKnightess I hate it too but at least the narwhal’s funny
Gieco ad's has stuck with me since u was like 4. It stuck with me so well I used them when I started driving and they saved my ass in an accident
This is a bank, but the Canadian Bank of Montreal (BMO) has an ongoing campaign with a "help desk" employee played by Lamorne Morris, who slides into to people's homes, pools, bedrooms (all while dressed in a blue suit and sitting at his desk) to advertise BMO's savings and security features. And their website/ads are plastered with his bemused yet disapproving face; judging you for not banking with BMO
Dream Jelly, I want to say sincerely thank you for making my day better. Your videos are incredibly comforting for me and they are a huge inspiration for me too. Keep up the amazing work✨
I know it's not insurance-related, but I still like the MayTag mascots. He's just so politely aggressive about leaving the laundry to him. Maybe I'm biased because I just threw my back out by doing laundry a few minutes ago, but still. I love watching that guy pretend to be a washer and dryer.
Also, I'm so upset it's "Flo and the Squad" and not "Flo and Co."
my friends and I would often reference mayhem saying I'm an emotionally compromised teenage girl