Special Agent Reporting

Esurance (2007) - What I Like About You?
Uploaded by joecool85

On the whole, I think Esurance commercials are a decently creative and well crafted way of selling as dry a product as auto insurance without the luxury of non sequitur cavemen or relying on the universal charisma of Dennis Haysbert. All things considered under the circumstances, they've gotten their name out, created a valuable corporate mascot in Erin Esurance (albeit with a deeply disturbing internet cult following); and despite the outrageous cartoons, managed to get their product message across clearly. Except for that one ad.

It's the one pictured above; that bizarro, sort of meta, pseudo-music video with the "What I Like About You" soundtrack. It doesn't really do much except ambiguously display the website address and provide fan service to all those Erin-philes out there. Without the context of the prior commercials a person wouldn't even know what they were selling. It just relies on the assumption that all this cartoon action would get you inquiring about the site. Esurance may have gotten popular in the last few years but it's no Nike or Gap who can get away with a commercial that just shoots out their ubiquitous trademark with no information about their products. I don't think anyone's buying car insurance for the image, so you may have to tell them what's in it for them.

However, all that was just a minor afterthought. If you're like me, after about the 80,000th time you've seen the commercial you wonder: are these "scenes" part of some actual Erin Esurance production? Well, apparently it actually and it's "Carbon Copy." Hosted by the company website, this is apparently the actual "film" that the commercial was showing outtakes from. They actually made a whole production for the commercial. Now that's thoroughness!

As for the film itself: not bad. There's a nice chemistry between Erin and her cavalier Handler. There's plenty of action, a little suspense, a dash of humor, and an unsettling bit of sexiness; all in roughly ten minutes. Your bar has been set "Quantum of Solace" (god, what an awful name).