Car Insurance Taste Test

Have you seen the commercial for the car insurance "taste test"? A man instructs willing participants to drink from two plastic cups filled with a red kool-aid-type liquid. After tasting both, the participant declares the first one to taste good, while the second one is horrible. The man then reveals that the first liquid is Geico car insurance, while the second is their competitor.

I presume this is supposed to be funny, seeing as you cannot (obviously) "taste" car insurance. I do not find the commercials funny. I find them stupid. The participant in the first commercial is a pregnant woman, and the man asks what her unborn baby thinks about the taste, saying something about babies (in the womb) have sensitive palates when it comes to car insurance (I don't recall his exact words).

Babies in the womb receive nourishment through their umbilical cords. They don't use their tongues, and thus their taste buds, until they are born. Fetuses cannot taste anything.

In the second in this series, an older couple looks confused when the man asks if this is their "first car insurance taste test". This makes me wonder if the participants are actors or real people. The pregnant woman in the first commercial could have been an actor, or she could have been a real person going along with the "joke".

Whatever is going on, I rate the effort "lame". I think they should stick with the computer animated gecko. Also, what is up with the saturation ad campaign that Geico has been running for quite some time now? Is it just me, or does Geico advertise far more than any other car insurance company? I mean, I DO see a lot of car insurance ads from other companies as well (which leads me to believe that providing car insurance must be a highly lucrative business), but it seems that Geico advertises far more than the others.

It makes me wonder how they can keep the rates down... they do advertise themselves as being a lower-priced car insurance provider. Since the government mandates that you purchase car insurance I think it would be reasonable for some government regulations to apply. Not that some do not already apply. I'm thinking in regards to how much profit the insurers can make. Seems to me they are currently raking it in (given the gobs of money they must be spending on advertising). Computer animating gecko spokes-reptiles can't be cheap.

PPP #16