Progressive Insurance

[DownriverDem]

I find the Progressive Insurance commericials that bash Baby Boomers offensive. It drives me crazy whenever they are on. Does it bother anyone else?

[50 Shades Of Blue]

1. Do you mean the becoming your parents ones?

[EYESORE 9001]

3. That's GEICO

I’m not sure which ones the OP is referencing.

[Wingus Dingus]

6. No, those are Progressive.

[EYESORE 9001]

20. Shows how much attention I pay

As a general observation, why do insurance commercials have to be ‘funny’ anyway? It’s serious stuff, after all. To my knowledge, the only one that doesn’t resort to humor is USAA.

[TheProle]

22. Do a search for the USAA ads with Gronk.

[EYESORE 9001]

26. I somehow avoided seeing those

I still don’t get the need for humor to sell insurance.

[a kennedy]

4. I love these becoming your parents ads.....so funny.

[50 Shades Of Blue]

17. So do I!

[Diamond_Dog]

28. Me too!

I think they’re hilarious! And we are Boomers.

[DownriverDem]

2. Yes

They are insulting.

[50 Shades Of Blue]

19. I'm a baby boomer, and I think they're absolutely hiliarious.

[Wingus Dingus]

5. Which ones?

[DownriverDem]

7. Dr Rick

The one with Dr. Rick.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2021/03/16/dr-rick-progressive-ad/

[Wingus Dingus]

8. I love those ads. They're hilarious.

"We don't need to print the internet." "Nobody who made the movie is here." "Let's stop talking about parking."

[DownriverDem]

9. Not to me

Are you a Boomer?

[Wingus Dingus]

12. I'm a Gen X, in my fifties.

I see myself in some of those ads, too. But I can laugh at myself.

[Stallion]

13. "...You think we'll be heading out about the end of the 3rd Quarter?"

I'm a baby boomer and love those commercials

[Wingus Dingus]

14. I know. My dad is Silent Generation, older than boomers, but

he ALWAYS plotted his early escape from every concert or game in advance...we never saw ANYTHING to the very end...

[Diamond_Dog]

29. My husband does that!

And we are both Boomers.

[Diamond_Dog]

31. I love the one

Where he makes the woman get rid of all her plaques that say Live Love Laugh
And taking away the garden gnomes

[Wingus Dingus]

39. The garden gnomes--"Not those two?" "Yep, they're gone."

"Forever?" "Yep."

Or my millennial son's favorite about the airport, because he teased us for printing up our plane tickets: "Paper tickets?! We're off to a terrible start!"

[a kennedy]

25. Yes, yes, love these ads......👍🏻

[Emile]

11. The only commercial I like is with Walter the cat.

[Ocelot II]

15. I'm a Boomer, I have Progressive insurance on my car,

and I think the ads are hilarious.

[DownriverDem]

16. Ageism

isn't funny to me. IMO

[ripcord]

18. I'm a boomer and I love those commericals

Of course I tease my younger relatives when they don't get the context of something before their time by saying "oops your millennial is showing".

[Gidney N Cloyd]

21. They're teasing, not "bashing." Most of us boomers can laugh at ourselves.

I think we're the first generation that was so vocal about not turning into our parents. We'd be young and hip forever, we'd break with the older generation's traditions. We'd-- oh, shit, now I forget why I came into this thread...

[renate]

23. I think they're funny! They're the only commercials I watch on purpose instead of skipping them

I don't mind a gentle teasing. They aren't cruel. They're like the joke about how you know you're getting older when you save a box just because it's a nice solid box.

[TheProle]

24. I think they are for the most part very funny.

A true rarity in advertising.

[MineralMan]

27. I'm 76 years old and find them to be hilarious.

It's not really about Boomers as the "parents." It's about every generation and its parents. We all end up risking becoming our parents. I experienced the same thing, myself, and am a lot like my parents. However, that's not really a bad thing. They were good people.

I have nieces and nephews who have teenagers and young adults as children. I skipped doing that, but it's funny to see those nieces and nephews becoming their parents. Their children will do the same thing. We all take on some of the characteristics of our parents, and develop some other characteristics that are our own.

The commercials are playing on that, not going after Boomers. We'll all be old folks -- if we're lucky, and our children will be horrified to see themselves turning into us, just as we did about our own parents.

Thos commercials are genius!

[Torchlight]

30. How exactly are the writers ridiculing the boomers

if the teasing is done at the expense of the following generation?

[Mariana]

32. You should speak to the manager about that. nt.

[bahboo]

34. hah...well played...

[nolabear]

33. I literally used those in a class I taught on aging.

The perception that “your parents” are doddering fools who don’t understand anything and are just annoying in everything they do (and many of those things are things younger people do as much if not more) creates a pov that’s actually dangerous.

Try reading work by Becca Levy on how the brain changes in older people according to how they’re (we’re) perceived and treated. It’s appalling.

[Sympthsical]

35. The ads are hilarious to me as a Millennial

Also, as a new homeowner. The ridiculous, meandering conversations about pointless things my partner and I have now. He's becoming his mother. "You do not have to sweep this floor five times a day." And I'm turning into my father somehow, "Yeah, let me get up on the roof." (What will I do when I get up there? It's anybody's guess!)

I can't believe these harmless ads are getting anyone's nose out of joint. They're making fun of everyone. Bad Janet was right!

[gratuitous]

36. I like the one with the sign guy and the little kid

The little kid may be going places. When he asks why the sign guy isn't doing all the fancy tricks the other sign guy is doing, he wipes his nose on his sleeve, then when he protests that he's "four-and-a-half" he cups his hands. These two little gestures look totally unrehearsed and natural; makes me think the kid has talent.

[ratchiweenie]

37. I love the one where the guy has the remote velcroded to his coffee table. I'm a boomer and would

never do that but my parents actually did. It makes me laugh when he says " I can see we have a lot of work to do". My boomer husband constantly picks up the remote and wanders around talking and leaves it in the weirdest places and of course I can't call it to find it. I've thought about it. LOL.

[nuxvomica]

38. I think the ads are hilarious and rather poignant

I enjoy watching them. Besides being funny, they remind us that all the fussiness and concern that we used to ridicule our parents for was actually part of their struggle to make the world safe for us, and to ensure our happiness, an enormous responsibility that they met, sometimes imperfectly, and with little reward.