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A Chicago area girl born and bred, I've lived in Mississippi, Montana, Michigan, and...ten years in the wilds of northeastern Indiana, where I fought the noble fight as a book editor. Now, I'm back in Illinois once more...for good. (At least I intend to make it that way!)

Wednesday, February 01, 2012

There Are Ads, and Then, There Are...

...really fun, really GOOD ads.
You know who I want to write ads for? Farmers Insurance.
Seriously.
"We are Farmers! Bom-da-bom-bom-bom-bom-bom."
(What's not to love?)

We all see a lot of incredibly stupid ads that want to be funny.
For instance, whoever thought up the "Caveman" bit for GEICO...needs to find a better line of work. That thing wasn't funny from the get-go, and it hasn't gotten any better.

But the Farmers ads?
Just the delivery of the lines makes 'em work, that's true. But the giant ball of lint? And the blowtorch?
And the line, "...where agents' minds are cultivated like a plump butternut squash."
And my all-time favorite...
(in a slide show)
"That's meat loaf, sir."
(next slide shows the artist Meat Loaf.)
"That's STILL Meat Loaf."


They're clever, even slapstick (an element that curiously works) without being dirty, suggestive, crude, or cruel. Which makes them already better than 99% of what's out there. But they're really, truly FUNNY to boot--and you remember the sponsor at the end of the ad, which is the whole point, after all.

Honorable mention? The new ads from Direct TV. I will never, ever in this lifetime get a satellite dish...but I do have to admit, the "grandson with a dog collar" and the "anger issues" and all...those ain't bad.

Farmers still wins, though.  So if the agency that does Farmers Insurance is looking for a new writer...I can do that job. And have a ball doing it.

"Bom-da-bom-bom-bom-bom-bom!"

1 comment:

Donna Alice said...

Ikind of like that new Crystal Light commercial(although I'd never drink the stuff - LOL) where the two women are on a plane and th one gal says to the other, "A Beach? We live in Chicago (I think) we work so many hours a week, when will we ever see a beach? Then the next scene is everyone on a beach and this handsome guy asking, "I need someone to help me gather water." It has humor, plot and the power of positive thinking. What's not to love???