Insurance Ads: Lots of Mayhem, Not Much Humor

The recently concluded holiday season was a bonanza for sports fans. There were zillions of football and basketball games on TV, so you could watch at least four games each day from Thanksgiving week all the way through New Year’s.

It’s not like I’m addicted to television. I mean, I only watch TV when I’m awake. But I have to admit I did see a fair number of ballgames during that time period. (I am using, of course, the definition of the phrase “fair number” that means: requires more zeros than the national debt.)

Anyway, I noticed an interesting phenomenon while watching all those games. There are at least eight different insurance companies that run commercials during ballgames, and every ad campaign attempts to be humorous, but often falls short. (And if anybody can relate to the concept of attempted humor falling short, it’s yours truly.)

 

Here is the list I compiled:

•  Progressive Insurance, with the character Flo, and her crew of odd coworkers.
• Farmers Insurance, with that bald guy who I think I’ve seen on episodes of “Law and Order,” talking about the bizarre claims the company has paid.
• State Farm, with the annoying insurance agents who apparently are roommates with a bunch of pro athletes.
• Allstate, with the Mayhem Guy, who is constantly causing accidents for other people.
• AFLAC, and their goofy duck character, which used to be voiced by comedian Gilbert Gottfried, until he got fired for sending offensive tweets.
• Liberty Mutual, which runs some commercials featuring an emu (no, really) and others spots that have weird people doing weird things with the Statue of Liberty in the background.
• Nationwide Insurance, with Peyton Manning and Brad Paisley, who appear in the unquestionably least humorous of all the insurance ads.
  
• GEICO, which began the trend of funny ads over 20 years ago with their animated gecko character. Since then they’ve used a caveman, talking pig, camel, Pinocchio, woodchucks, and many other off-the-wall characters.

The production quality for these TV ads is high, the comedic actors are talented, and the humor writing is somewhat clever (except for the Peyton Manning spots, where everything about them is awful, especially Peyton). And yet, despite the huge investment of money and talent, none of these insurance commercials are all that funny. And I know the reason why, because a few years ago I taught a course titled, “The Basics of Humor Writing.” No, really, I did. It was part of an adult ed summer program in Torrington, and the six people who signed up for my class said it was life-changing. (I am using, of course, the definition of the term “life-changing” that means: almost as exciting as watching scabs heal.)

I’m going to offer you some valuable information, and you don’t even have to sign up for a summer class. Here goes: the key to all humor is surprise. This means if you see the same gag over and over again, even if it was funny the first time, by the 47th time you watch Mayhem Guy pretend to be a dog and lick Tina Fey’s face, it just ain’t funny.

 

The insurance companies should consider going back to their old way of marketing their product on TV: show a video of a house burning down, while the announcer solemnly says, “If this happens to you and you have insurance, we will rebuild your house. If you don’t have insurance, you will spend the next ten years living in a van down by the river.”

Or, they could just cut back on the weird animals, such emus, geckos, and Peyton Mannings.