Why Do Insurance Companies Use Lame Humor in Their TV Ads?
/As it happens, we have written and produced a number of insurance company TV and radio commercials, as well as print, outdoor, and web ads. Ours were for health insurance, and largely not humor-driven, but we suspect you are thinking more of home and auto insurance. Still, w get where they are coming from.
There are actually several solid reasons why many insurance companies use humor – lame or otherwise – in their TV commercials instead of focusing on their product attributes.
Humor sells. It’s been proven time after time, year after year, and it really comes down to this: People buy from companies they like…and people generally like you more if you make them smile or laugh. Of course, that right there is the hardest part – knowing how to be genuinely funny, yet not do so in a way that insults your prospect or is interpreted as a “cheap shot.” The fact that you asked your question in the way you did shows that some insurance companies are NOT very good at being funny.
Insurance “facts” can be elusive. A friend of mine has been an insurance agent for many years, and when he is asked questions about what is covered and when, MOST of the time his answer starts with, “That depends…” Why? Because insurance is about risk and most insurance is personalized to fit the person, family, property, or company being insured. In ads, then, the insurance company needs to be relatively general about what they promise, because they always reserve the right to NOT insure you if they don’t want to risk it. Thus, it’s easier to use humor and avoid promising too much.
U.S. insurance laws vary from state to state. We’re not sure how car and home work in other countries, but in a country where the insurance laws can be 50 kinds of different based on geography alone, it’s often easier to make a few apropos jokes in your ads and leave the details to individual conversations between sales reps and their prospects.
Being forced to buy insurance rubs some people the wrong way. In most U.S. states – maybe all by now – anyone who owns a car is required to buy car insurance. Why? A car can do real damage real easily, so it protects us all. Likewise, mortgage lenders require anyone who buys a house to have home insurance. And many companies require contractors to have business insurance to do work for them. It’s good to have, but can be expensive, especially to someone who is barely getting by…thus, the resentment. So, humor can be an effective way to take the edge off of talking about something that people resent having to discuss at all.
Done well, humor makes you more memorable. We have good reasons for not choosing GEICO car insurance, but their use of the gecko as a “spokesperson” is brilliant. Some of those commercials fall flat, but most of them over the years have been great, and few would notice or remember the GEICO name without the gecko. In fact, the few times that I’ve seen competing insurance companies do ads insulting the gecko, the ads fail because readers remember the gecko, not whatever sales points the other guy was pushing.
As you suggested in your question, humor is not always the right tool to use, and it’s often done badly. When it’s done right, however, a humorous TV commercial can be very effective and incredibly memorable, especially for topics and products that are hard to be specific about. And effective commercials are never lame.