Old People are Funny — Progressive

Your parents are embarrassing. Their parents were embarrassing. One day, you will be embarrassing.

Progressive captures the essence of aging in their new commercials that is relatable to everyone. While it doesn't have a linear arch, we saw fun character development and a progression over obstacles through multiple ads. With revolving characters and locations, one central part makes these effective.

“Unleash the Power of Storytelling” by Rob Biesenbach details what makes a story good and brings them to a human level(pg. 22). The pivotal part of any good story is a real and relatable main character.

Progressive, who originally branded Flo and recently Baker Mayfield, has taken to a new character: Dr. Rick. The relatable life coach for new homeowners tackles a series of conflicts with a fun group of young adults. With each commercial, he takes these young homeowners and introduces them to the rights and wrongs of adulting.

My favorite part of this character is the juxtaposition to normal life. In a scene where you would expect the old guy to try to help someone back out of a spot, it's the young guy, and Dr. Rick is offering advice to move on and not help. Where you would expect the old guy to be doing wrong, he is in the right. From the attire to the facial reactions, Dr. Rick is the star that can pull a laugh from any scene.

What makes these ads effective is the humor. Getting a laugh or smile will instantly resonate with audiences and leave a lasting impression. Take example “Methods” which uses the nostalgic corny “Live Laugh Love” sign seen in every other house. He takes the plain and simple and brings some life into it.

By creating scenarios with realistic outcomes and obvious answers, the audience feels in the loop while the cast is out. Having that “in” to the commercials has the viewer expecting the outcome like a joke being set-up. Now we wait for the punch lines and great cuts.

What also makes these commercials hit is the locations. A lot of the scenes are based at a home. Through Covid, our population has been static enjoying the home life and finding the little things in those around us that feel closely similar to their parents. The little quarks, while funny, can sometimes be annoying and these series of commercials bring out the fun in it.

What actions I took:

After seeing multiple of these on TV, I took to youtube to find the other hidden gems. What I found was a whole series of Dr. Rick Commercials to even a “Mockumentary”.

While this didn’t create a sale for me, it helped spread brand awareness. Interestingly enough, I already had progressive as my motorcycle insurance provider so seeing a company that I pay monthly create fun content was great. When talking to my roommates about this assignment, after bringing up Dr. Rick, they all agreed on the lasting impression it left.

I look forward to finding more Dr. Rick commercials and hopefully learning some fun life advice.