The Consequences Of War
Where the hell did Liberty Mutual come from?
I’d never even heard of them until a few years ago and suddenly football ad breaks, youtube midrolls, and more were just flooded with Liberty Mutual ads, and the tide has not receeded. And I hate all of them. The only one I thought was kinda funny was the very first Liberty Bibberty one with the actor who keeps flubbing the lines. Then this past year they even managed to ruin that by bringing him back for a new role in the Emu ad campaign. I fucking despise all of them. Why do insurance companies have extended storylines and universes now? Have you ever dealt with an insurance company for a claim? It’s enough to convince you that every company should be boiled in an acid vat.
While 99% of insurance ad campaigns are vile filth that would be first against the wall if I ever gained tyrannical levels of power, Liberty Mutual’s blitzkrieg of ads has firmly placed them at #1 worst for the time being. Geico can be occasionally off the wall or harmless, State Farm depends completely on what NFL player they’ve hired having on-camera charisma (Mahomes does, Rodgers did not), Nationwide has thankfully faded into the background without Peyton, Farmers exists, and Progressive just kinda sucks. But Liberty Mutual, man. It takes a lot of effort to come up with such an inspired idea of having an Emu (an inherently funny bird) and make you want to gouge your eyes out anyway.
The worst part is that they’ve effectively already won. The goal with this crap is mostly to make you aware of them as a company. If you talk about them, the advertising worked. Liking the ad is secondary to that goal.
Anyway thank you for reading The Draw Play, the only football blog that dares to ask the question: how can we relate football to the Emu war.
Liberty Mutual has the worst combination of incessant-ness and lack of variety when it comes to their commercials. Nowadays it’s the one with the liberty bibberty guy, the woman with the baby, and that weird Ghostbusters one that pops up every now and then. I literally only see these three regardless of the media I am consuming at that moment.
With that being said, I am ashamed to admit that Mahomes and Maauto gets a crack out of me every single time.
The one with the baby makes me want to put my fist through the TV, it’s easily a top-5 worst commercial I’ve ever seen.
Glad I’m not the only one lol.
I have never heard a more robotic sounding baby in my life.
But it also gave us this genius parody from SNL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sI3RhwSF8mo – makes it worth it
History nerd here. Love the emu war joke and the liberty mutual commercial has gotten stale
I always find the regional differences in the US fascinating. My wife worked for Liberty Mutual almost 2 decades ago, and they were one of the biggest employers in the state. At the same time, I’d never heard of some West Coast institutions (even something as big as In N Out) until well into the internet age.
You want your mind blown wide open? You know the fast food chain Hardees? Over here it’s called Carl’s Jr.
Liberty Mutual is based in Boston, so it was pretty big here in New England for quite a while (Full disclosure: I used to be a customer of theirs and they were OK, as far as insurance companies go). I didn’t realize they weren’t nationally big for quite so long until I saw this.
I spent the first 22 years of my life in Maryland and upstate NY and I’d never heard of them until they started the national ad campaign blitz
Their commercials aired in Ohio in the ’90s.
Never thought you would do one for the Emu war.
Have you been watching the NBA playoofs at all?
NO FLEX. ZONE. NO FLEX. ZONE. THEY KNOOOOOOOOOOW BETTA!
Every fucking break.
What pro wants…what a pro needs…
Is THAT what they’re saying? I’ve always heard SNOWFLAKES! GO! SNOWFLAKES! GO!
The worst part of that “song” are the pauses. It leads to chinese-water-torture moments where I’m not sure if i’ve successfully muted the TV, or it’s going to continue…
I despise Liberty less for the commercials and more for the in-broadcast banner ads they buy during auto races. All of the sudden at the top of the scoring chyron their logo will pop up in a bright yellow banner. Similar to the yellow banner that pops up when a caution comes out. It is confusing and ridiculous, and could be easily avoided but for Liberty’s insistence on branding.
Geico’s “Can 15 minutes really save you 15% or more? (insert rhetorical question)?” was probably the best of the insipid insurance ad campaigns simply because it provided a variety of different scenes to follow the announcer asking the same leading question (Randy Johnson was in one of them! Who doesn’t love Randy Johnson?). Plus, the bird in the hand worth two in the bush Antiques Roadshow bit was a genuinely funny parody: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWj6fh-IJ5Q
AND DOUG
Doug is a tool.
Progressive used to be really good with the Baker ads. He’s probably the only NFL player who has natural acting chops.
What about Terry Bradshaw? Or Howie Long?
Okay, maybe not Howie…
I always found the Flo/Progressive stuff horribly unfunny. They’re all pretty bad and actually give me a lower opinion on insurance companies considering most states require it and they’re spending a ton of money on advertising versus paying out when needed.
Does anyone remember those super cheap awful insurance companies like general?
…and exactly WHY do insurance agents wear aprons???
I think you’re forgetting the best one of the insurance ads, the Dean Winters Mayhem ads for Allstate.
But even here they’re starting to run their course
Also I had to google which company they were for, which shows ads are kinda a waste
Ok, I have to ask. Dave are you Satan, capable of preaching the future, or otherwise capable of putting a curse on people who have made fun of your takes in the past????
My 9 year old just got bit in the face today by an emu at school. Her lip is cut and a little bruised and we have to take her to the doctor to see if she needs any shots. WTF!!!
Birds are by and large terrible. The only place they belong is on the dinner table.
Don’t send your daughter to school in Australia, doofus
It is my sad duty to report that emus have infiltrated backwoods New England posing as cute little pets for elementary school teachers. 😯
Required a 3 hr wait at the local doc’s office (some teenager showed up with an emergency hand that got caught in a wood chipper, which based on how excruciating it seemed, I’m sure was an ugly injury). We have to put antibiotic ointment on the peck for several days. For completely unrelated reasons, I now HATE emus. If I see that commercial, I’m going to start foaming at the mouth, and then I’m gonna… I’m gonna BITE MY PILLOW!
I remember Liberty Mutual ads from what must be close to a decade ago at this point. They were very straitlaced stuff–slow panning shots and fade-ins of American flags, the Statue of Liberty, etc. put to piano and a sentimental voiceover. Evidently they decided some kind of Old Spice-esque madcap rebrand was in order.
The Liberty Bibberty guy somehow has more Josh Hartnett Energy than Josh Hartnett himself.
Have sold software to insurance companies before. Turns out they have trouble spending their marketing ad money. They can’t promote individual agencies if they have independent agents; they can’t talk much about why they’re different because some states regulate prices… basically all they can do with their budgets is throw gobs of dollars at cute campaigns to stick in your brain so when you say “hmmm what insurance should I get” you remember their names. So they do. And it suuuuuucks.
Was not expecting to go on my favorite funny little football comic site and see a man getting impaled by an emu head.
We had to find a new insurance company because our old insurance company pulled out of our state,
My wife refused to even consider Liberty Mutual because the ads were so terrible.
I’m a bit late to the party here, but I am surprised the company Gronk advertises for didn’t get a mention.