the progressive girl

Cartoon Flo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=he3cMiZVq0o

Buffy's a fan

i'm not

You're not Buffy.

the matt taibbi quote about flo copied in the second or third post on this thread is creepy and gross.

If you watch the clip, Buffy makes glaring error calling into question her fandom tho.

Matt Taibbi in gross/creepy shockah.

and she's total WS material out of character (and WS of shame material in charater).

otm

it's a shame that he manifests everything i hate in a human being because much of his coverage of the financial meltdown/housing crisis was quite good. xp

I've a friend who like to tease me about being a Flo fan. He made up a little for this by FB'ing me this fantastic article about Stephanie Courtney and her career up to and including Flo:

http://www.cosmopolitan.com/career/news/a38633/get-that-life-stephanie-courtney-flo-progressive/

There have been some roles I didn't get that I really wanted. Originally I auditioned for Joan for Mad Men. They said, "You didn't get that, but will you play a switchboard operator instead?" I said, "Sure!" Then I saw Christina Hendricks in that emerald dress, and I went, Oh, I get it now. I also auditioned for Pam for The Office. I didn't get far in that audition, but I was such a fan of the British Office I was just excited to be there. Both of the ladies who got these parts are so perfect. You have to audition for a thousand "no"s so you can get a "yes."

much prefer the AT&T girl

Caity Weaver interviews Stephanie Courtney -- Flo herself:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/25/magazine/progressive-insurance-flo-stephanie-courtney.html?unlocked_article_code=1.BU0.yRwt.o01D-8trpQXq&smid=url-share

much prefer the AT&T girl

Off-topic, but Good Grief does she have some psycho edgelord incel fanboys.

...but you could probably same the same of any TV spokeswomen.

Very charming and normal Taibbi quote at the top if this thread

a clue to his later turn against progressives

The first few commercials, it was kind of amusing I guess, but as the commercials grew in number her character has started to get reaaaaally fucking annoying. Who knows, maybe she loves the way the character has developed, but for some reason I think that she hates the character,

funny in retrospect as I do not think she now hates the character and is probably quite happy with this regular paycheck plus the cultural impact she's had. These commercials have gone on for so long that they passed through the 'annoying' era ages ago and now are something I enjoy when I see them (which is admittedly not often as I don't watch much commercial tv). She seems like a nice person.

A good commercial would be Flo pleasuring herself with the Geico lizzard and talking dirty!

can't argue with that

weird this thread was bumped today! at about the same time ned revived (and without seeing it until just now), i took this pic

https://i.imgur.com/IhMfc1f.jpg

just read the article, holy shit at the likely $10 million a year paycheck

Very charming and normal Taibbi quote at the top if this thread

― waste of compute (One Eye Open), Sunday, November 26, 2023 5:12 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

just saw this. wtf.

glad flo is getting her money. she is a reassuring presence on the airwaves. has been around for years.

i actually don't understand what is supposed to be annoying about her.

in any case, i use njm for car insurance. sorry flo.

A good commercial would be Flo pleasuring herself with the Geico lizzard and talking dirty!
can't argue with that

― I? not I! He! He! HIM! (akm), Sunday, November 26, 2023 7:22 PM (forty-nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

this is also really not ok.

i actually don't understand what is supposed to be annoying about her.

I think it was the ilxor Homosexual II who long ago stated on ilx that in her experience when a man says he finds a woman "annoying" it generally means he would like to fuck her. Ever since I read that I've mentally tested her observation against each instance where it could be applied and I've come to regard it as true more often than not.

probably also true for murder fantasies like the one taibbi sketched above.

if i was not a man, i would probably think men are trash.

xp It was sunny successor who said that

probably is true of all genders. good deflection from one's true feelings. "omg, you are soooo annoyinggg"

It was sunny successor who said that

I see it stuck in your head, too. thx for the correct attribution.

for reference: truth bombs

was Flo the first time a big company made a recurring character out of a regular employee? seems like a bunch of 'em have done that over the years - Jan from Toyota, the AT&T girl, Liberty Mutual's moustache guy, Jake from State Farm, probably a few others I forgot. that's a pretty good legacy for a TV commercial actor

Fun addendum: Annie Fish on Bluesky dug up the 1999 Bud Light ad mentioned in the piece

https://bsky.app/profile/anniefish.bsky.social/post/3kf5auipjrc27

lol xposts, but I also internalized this truth RE: annoying and have definitely observed it in action so I basically now try to avoid ever describing anyone as annoying lest someone draw the same conclusion.

also, I've always been outspokenly pro-Flo and am glad to hear she's making bank.

For those not on Bluesky, the Bud ad:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDZB6W71-f4

On camera for perhaps 0.7 seconds!

Ah i saw her that time

I remember Patricia Richardson, the mom from "Home Improvement," coming on some talk show & talking about her acting past. She had been in some O.B. tampons commercial (iirc as a bike cop) in the early '80s that she said "kept her from getting a job for 10 years." But look, she went on to be in that TV show, and then, judging by appearances, I think she was also the drummer for Sleater-Kinney. So there's hope for the Progressive girl.

― This is four-dimensional art; the 4th dimension is incredibly powerful. (Abbott), Tuesday, May 4, 2010 11:06 AM (thirteen years ago) bookmarkflaglink

this made me miss abbott

loooool that’s an excellent abbotttt post

speaking of the AT&T girl it really bugs me that Keegan-Michael Key is in the latest commercial and doesn't really do or say anything? like he's still a fairly big name, he still does a lot of movies and voice work, kinda pathetic to basically be an extra in a commercial isn't it?

if i was not a man, i would probably think men are trash.

― treeship.

counterpoint: i'm more fond of and less judgemental of men now that i don't feel like i have to _be_ one.

There is something distinctively straight male about concocting a murder fantasy about a woman one has a crush one, as mr. taibbi did upthread. I am glad this is less acceptable now than in 2010.

was Flo the first time a big company made a recurring character out of a regular employee?

i feel like this had a moment in the 70s as well: the maytag repair man, the "time to make the donuts" guy, etc

Good call. Time to make the donuts guy was a character named Fred the Breaker. I knew the actor who played him. He was also the Breakstones Sour Cream guy!

Fred the Baker not breaker!

see that shit would not fly today. remember the Sprint "can you hear me now?" guy jumping to T-Mobile? something about that just didn't feel right.

At some point, commercial broadcast television became a subsidiary of the auto insurance industry. We did not see this happening.

I feel like I have seen more ads for car insurance than I have for any other good or service. And they all have their cutesy memes and whatnot. The cavemen, Flo, the thing with the emu, the thing with the gecko, etc.

One used to see ads for beer or hamburgers or long-distance telephony or diabeetus supplies or whatever. At present, advertising is mostly about car insurance.

This is a strange timeline and I want out of it.

earlier in this same timeline, commercials were all about husbands berating their wives about coffee

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnjjkgIO3Ck

now we get insurance-selling lizards

The proliferation of insurance commercials has always boggled my mind. Like who changes their insurance that much? I only pay renter’s insurance, but I haven’t changed it for like 20 years. Maybe I’m not the target demographic here.

If it didn't work, they wouldn't do it. Or so one would assume.

I dunno. Allegedly, John Wanamaker said that half of the money spent on advertising is wasted; you just don't know which half.

auto insurance is one of those things where everyone feels like they pay too much, I suspect, so people are likely to shop around for that at least once a year.