I hate to admit it, but I had a thing for Flo from the Progressive commercials for awhile.  She’s got this kinda goth/indie thing going on, she’s kinda funny, and she looks like you could talk her into just about anything after a few drinks.

But now I’m just done with her… especially after this latest commercial from Progressive:

One of my loyal readers sent me this and was losing his mind over the fact that she said she likes to “ride the pink pony,” which is a euphemism for sex.

Anytime crap like that happens, I always have to wonder if there is just one guy approving stuff at the corporate office. The chick that plays Flo is a stand up comedienne when she’s not shilling car insurance, so she probably knows what she just said and may even be doing it on purpose to get fired from the hell that is working for Progressive. Otherwise, how did that make it that far in the organization without someone raising a timid hand during a meeting.

When I was a kid, I was part of this youth group called DeMolay. It was an all boys group, but we had girls around all the time, usually just to hang out, but sometimes they held these “auxiliary” positions called “Sweetheart” and “Princess.” At one point, the “League” that contained a bunch of chapters around a specific region where I grew up got reorganized and part of that reorganization was to choose a new name. This is not a task well suited to a bunch of goofy teenage boys because one of the first suggestions to come up was “Friendly Hills,” specifically so that the Sweetheart and Princess had to wear sashes, t-shirts, and whatnot emblazoned with the words “Friendly Hills” across their chests. It almost worked too… seriously, it made it to a vote and everything; but the chicks threatened to walk out if we passed the measure and we all learned a valuable lesson that day on who really controls the universe.

Anyway, my point here is that you can’t do shit like this and not think it through just a little bit. When I did a search for a reference for “ride the pink pony,” Google came back with a boat load of responses, including a few people who have already posted a snickering response to this ad.

Progressive, you’re cool enough to have your own channel on YouTube; hows about you do a little Google search next time you’re putting an ad together?

- Jeff Ferguson

Related posts you might enjoy:

1. Happy New Year, Progressive, it is officially time to wrap up the Flo commercials
2. Product Placement 3: Progressive Meets Tron