Antelope with night vision goggles are the latest animals to grace the GEICO menagerie in their commercials.

Commercial

Commercial opens in the African Plains at night. The moon is out and you see a black figure lurking out in the darkness.

Antelope #1: Look whose back?

Antelope #2: Again?

Antelope #1: It’s embarrassing.

Antelope #2: It’s embarrassing.

Screen changes to where you can see two antelope wearing night vision goggles.

Antelope #1: We can see you Carl.

Antelope #2: We can totally see you.

Antelope #1: Come on, you’re better than this – all that prowling around.

Antelope #2: Yeah you’re the king of the jungle.

Antelope #1: Have you thought about going vegan, Carl?

Lion turns away and antelopes start laughing.

Scene changes to two guys on a stage talking back and forth, both have a guitar.

Man #1: You know, folks who save hundreds of dollars by switching to GEICO sure are happy.

Man #2: How happy are they Jimmy?

Man #1: Happier than an Antelope with night vision goggles.

Man #2: Nice

Announcer: Get Happy, Get GEICO. Fifteen minutes could save you 15% or more.

Point of the Commercial

GEICO continues to roll with the commercials to make people laugh. In this one they are very visual for their point and then cap it off with a short vaudeville act to explain the joke.

GEICO’s point? That you will be happy switching to them.

What They Want You to Do

GEICO wants you to switch to them from your current car insurance. They always want you to switch that is really to only message they ever use. Heck, their slogan “Fifteen minutes could save you 15% or more” is built on the premise of you switching to them.

My Thoughts on this GEICO Commercial

Overall, I like this “Antelope with Night Vision Goggles” commercial. Yes, I did find the antelope talking funny when they were egging on the lion.

I guess I am really just tired hearing about GEICO, it’s like the saturation campaign that never ends. At this point, I would probably not move my insurance to GEICO because that would open me up see information from them even more.

However, since we are here to talk about a specific commercial and not the company itself. I do have to give this GEICO “Antelope with Night Vision Goggles” commercial to thumbs up.

DTRIC Insurance introduces the Akamai Rater.

Commercial

Commercial opens with a white screen that has DTRIC, AKAMAI RATER and “How you drive is how you save” on it.

Announcer: Akamai rater, sign up, plug in, and start saving.

Screen changes to show the DTRIC mascot, Deetric, holding the device.

Announcer: Akamai rater is the revolutionary device that helps people save on auto insurance and DTRIC is the first to offer anything like it. Akamai rater lets you be in control of what you pay. Drive safely and you can save up to 40%. It’s easy.

Deetric climbs into a green car that just about matches his green hair.

Announcer: Just plug Akamai rater into the port of your car, and start saving.

Deetric shows you exactly where to find the port of your car.

Announcer: Akamai rater, how you drive is how you save.

Commercial closes with a screen showing the Akamai Rater and the 3 ways you can contact DTRIC for insurance, as well as “Sign up. Plug in. Start Saving.”

Point of the Commercial

This DTRIC commercial is extremely simple; they are announcing that they have a new tracking product that could save you money. The tracking program basically reads your car and analyzes how you drive. If the rater says that you drive safely, then DTRIC may cut your insurance premium up to 40%.

However, as some people that have used other raters have found out, if the rater says that you are not a safe driver you could actually see your insurance premium go up. So you may want to take that in to consideration before you sign up for this, currently volunteer, program.

What They Want You to Do

DTRIC wants you to try out their new gadget. But, in order to try out the new gadget you have to have insurance with them. So while the commercial is generally meant for all drivers, whether they are currently with DTRIC or not, it is aiming to get new DTRIC customers.

My Thoughts

I picked this commercial as DTRIC is one of the newest insurance companies to recently be added to our Car Insurance Reviews. Many of you may have never heard of them because they only write insurance in Hawaii.

For me I like the commercial because it is simple. They don’t say they are cheaper or better than any other company, they only offer you a way to save on their own insurance premiums. The commercial is to the point, they tell you exactly what they want from you and I honestly like this little Deetric character better than the GEICO gecko or Flo. Deetric kind of reminds me of one of the little Troll dolls I had when I was growing up.

So for its simplicity, to the pointedness (not sure if that is a word, but going to use to anyway) and the cute mascot that reminds me of my childhood and makes me want to go sit on a tropical beach, I give this DTRIC commercial two thumbs up.

Teen drivers are easily recognized by New Jersey police officers, thanks to a new license plate feature.

Stricter licensing provisions and identification programs have lead to a decrease in accidents for teen drivers.

When out patrolling, police officers rely on not just equipment, but also on visual clues that someone is breaking the law. In New Jersey, they now have the assistance of a new license plate feature to help them identify if it’s a new teen driver that is the one breaking the law.

And from the statistics, not only are cops issuing out more tickets thanks to this feature, they have also possibly prevented a high number of accidents.

How Are Teen Drivers Identified in New Jersey?

In the state of New Jersey, drivers that are new to the road have to place a reflective decal sticker on both the front and back license plates on the vehicle they drive. This sticker is not meant to identify them to other drivers, but to give police officers the heads up that this driver is subject to graduated driver licensing provisions.

These provisions include that teens are only allowed a permit when they turn 16, and they are not allowed to have a driver’s license until they have reached 17. In addition, they are restricted from driving after 11p.m. and are limited to the number of people (specifically other teens) they are allowed to have in the car while they are driving.

Statistics Tied to this New Jersey Decal

Because these decals allow police officers automatically know that the driver is subject to graduated driver licensing provisions, they can quickly identify if the driver is violating any of the provisions. Being able to identify these teen drivers quickly has worked, as there has been a 14 percent increase in the number of citations to teen drivers that are in violation of the provisions, per a study done by the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP).

CHOP also found that there was a 9 percent decrease in police-reported crashes for this same driving group. So it is looking like these stricter driving laws and graduated licensing provisions for teen drivers really do make a difference.

Teen Drivers in Other States Beware?

For those teen drivers that are laughing at their counterparts in New Jersey at the moment, don’t laugh too loud. Several other states are already looking into using these same decals to identify the teen drivers in their states, as well.

This last summer the federal government has also decided to step in, and will now be awarding grants to individual states that implement stronger graduated driver licensing provisions for their teen drivers (onlineautoinsurance.com).

An American Family Insurance family takes a road trip protected by their insurance coverage.

Commercial

The commercial goes through almost a home video of the announcer talking, his son and his grandson and all the national parks they have travelled to. It also shows all the stops and troubles they have had out on the road.

Announcer: It began as a promise, “Son, were going on a road trip.” That promise has lasted over 30 years. Our dream is to visit every national park in America. It’s been thousands of miles, countless bumps along the way. But we’ll just keep moving on, pursuing this amazing dream.

The American Family Insurance logo shows up on screen, followed by “Protects what matters most” under the American Family red roof symbol, and “Your dream is out there” also under the red American Family roof.

Commercial closes with the American Family Insurance logo on the screen again, the company website as well as the changing text of “auto”, “24/7 Claims Service, and Emergency Roadside Service.

Point of this American Family Commercial

American Family Insurance is not only highlighting an example of a possible American Family Insurance client, they are also making a point about the extent of their insurance coverage. With the example being a family driving all over the country, American Family is showing that you are protected under their coverage no matter how far away from home you drive.

What American Family Insurance Wants You to Do

First, American Family Insurance wants you to trust that they will be there for you for all your claims and road assistance troubles. They want you to have a feeling of security and freedom in knowing that they will be there for you if you ever do get in trouble while pursuing these “dreams”.

Second, they want you to visit their website. They make no other mention of how to contact them; which was most likely done on purpose. By not giving you a bunch of ways to contact them you don’t feel the pressure of the sale. They instead are quietly leaving you with the feeling that you can contact them when you need them and not that they are just trying to sell you insurance.

My Thoughts on the American Family Insurnace Commercial

I like the quiet simplicity of this insurance commercial. Normally I lean towards the funnier commercials, but the lack of sales pressure combined with the emotional factor of family men spending time with each other hit a chord with me.

Giving this American Family Insurance commercial two thumbs up.

Here are 5 things I give thanks for this year, in regards to the insurance industry.

Even insurance has good points to give thanks for.

Even though insurance companies and required insurance coverage is a common complaint today, there are things about insurance you should give thanks for. As silly as it may sound, insurance is actually a good thing. It just happens to be a good thing that we don’t like being forced to have.

I Give Thanks That We Have to Carry Insurance

Okay, once you stop laughing and pick yourself up off the floor from falling out of your seat, really think about what insurance does for us. We make payments to the insurance company, so that they will make an even bigger payment for us if we are ever in an accident.

I don’t know about you, but there is definitely no way I have room in my monthly budget to be paying for unplanned damages to my car or to someone else’s car that I caused. If it wasn’t for insurance, many people would go broke from having to pay for things like this out of their pocket. That is less money going into other areas of our economy, which just snowballs into an economic problem. I may be exaggerating a little here, but I am sure you see how it would have an effect.

So yes, I give thanks that I have insurance.

I Give Thanks That Other People Have to Have Insurance

If you have ever been in a car accident that was not your fault, you know where I am coming from here. Unfortunately, not everyone does carry insurance, and that creates problems for the people they hit.

I Give Thanks that Insurance is Not Run by the Government

I can see the confused looks on your faces already, so let me clear something up. Insurance is REGULATED not SOLD by the government. This means that the government makes sure that the insurance companies that sell the insurance are doing so ethically and within the law.

Can you imagine what our car insurance would be like if it was government run. We would have to wait two years just to get a decision as to whether they were going to insure us or not, and forget about getting a payment for damages in any reasonable fashion.

Also it’s illegal for an insurance company not to have funds available to pay claims, and with how the government runs on a constant deficit they would be breaking their own law.

I Gave Thanks That We Can Switch

The great thing about our insurance industry is all the options we have. If you ever are unhappy with how your insurance company treats you, you are free to leave them and go with one of the many other insurance companies available.

With so many options, you don’t have to put up being treated badly by an insurance company. You also have a better chance of finding an insurance company that works best for your personality and budget.

I Give Thanks for Insurance Commercials

If you have read many of our posts you will know that we frequently talk about insurance commercials, and how effective they are. But all that aside, insurance commercials are a cheap form of entertainment.

With commercial characters like Mayhem, Flo, and the 21st Century guy, you are bound to at least find yourself smiling when these commercials come on. And anything that makes me break out in a random smile during the day I give thanks for.