Geico adverts

[WickerBill]

I've always been anti-Geico because of a few articles I read stating they throw significant amounts of their profits toward "donating" radar and laser detectors to police forces, but let me ask you a question:

They are now running four different lines of commercials: Cavemen, Gecko, Stack o' Bills, and Socratic Method (answering a question with a question: Ed "Too Tall" Jones, Elmer Fudd, Charlie Daniels). If I cave in and switch to Geico, can I stop seeing all of these commercials??


Edit: there's also the outlier commercial: the talking pothole. "Your tire's all flat and junk!"

[extramundane]

I've always been anti-Geico because of a few articles I read stating they throw significant amounts of their profits toward "donating" radar and laser detectors to police forces, but let me ask you a question:

They are now running four different lines of commercials: Cavemen, Gecko, Stack o' Bills, and Socratic Method (answering a question with a question: Ed "Too Tall" Jones, Elmer Fudd, Charlie Daniels). If I cave in and switch to Geico, can I stop seeing all of these commercials??


Edit: there's also the outlier commercial: the talking pothole. "Your tire's all flat and junk!"

The ad agency responsible for those is here in town. I've pledged for some time now that if I ever run into the person responsible for the "Money You Could Be Saving" campaign, I'm going to punch him in the throat.

The damning thing is that I'm a customer of theirs. :\

[Indy]

they throw significant amounts of their profits toward "donating" radar and laser detectors to police forces


Oh, man, that is EVIL.

[grungex]

But it's for your safety... :flame:

[nrc]

I've always been anti-Geico because of a few articles I read stating they throw significant amounts of their profits toward "donating" radar and laser detectors to police forces, but let me ask you a question:

Oh, it's worse than that. For decades they've not only pushed for anti-radar detector legislation, they've cancelled the policies of customers who they discover have radar detectors.

[datachicane]

Oh, it's worse than that. For decades they've not only pushed for anti-radar detector legislation, they've cancelled the policies of customers who they discover have radar detectors.

I'd heard the same story back into the early '80s, which was enough to steer me clear. Seems like I recall Indy Legend® Pat Bedard riffing on the subject pretty frequently.

[Napoleon]

If I cave in and switch to Geico. . . .

I personally would recommend Progressive since they are headquartered in the village I live in and so that would keep something like 5400 taxpayers to my village employed.

Plus Flo is cuter then anybody in the Geico ads.

[WickerBill]

I personally would recommend Progressive since they are headquartered in the village I live in and so that would keep something like 5400 taxpayers to my village employed.

Plus Flo is cuter then anybody in the Geico ads.

Dude, if my premiums with Progressive would keep 5400 people employed, I can't afford to switch.

[cameraman]

I'd recommend AMICA Mutual, my family has used them since them since the 1960s and none of us have ever had any trouble at all.

[datachicane]

Dude, if my premiums with Progressive would keep 5400 people employed, I can't afford to switch.

:rofl:

[G.]

Plus Flo is cuter then anybody in the Geico ads.

I'd rather hump the reptile.

:laugh:

;)

[Andrew Longman]

But it's for your safety... :flame:

The wife got her first ticket ever today. 30 years of driving.

Turns out the local cops all have a new toy for the new year. It is license plate recognition software that automatically scans plates and compares it to a database. Seems the NJ DMV never sent her a registration renewal and she has unknowingly been driving unregistered since July. $54 bucks. We were told he was giving us a break by not towing us. Of course the DMV is closed until Monday so she can't drive.

We saw four other people pulled over within the next ten minutes.

[Indy]

Andrew, you can pop a cap in someone's ass any time you feel like it, but DON'T mess with taxman. :laugh:

[oddlycalm]

The wife got her first ticket ever today. 30 years of driving.

Turns out the local cops all have a new toy for the new year. It is license plate recognition software that automatically scans plates and compares it to a database. Seems the NJ DMV never sent her a registration renewal and she has unknowingly been driving unregistered since July. $54 bucks. We were told he was giving us a break by not towing us. Of course the DMV is closed until Monday so she can't drive.

We saw four other people pulled over within the next ten minutes.
Sorry to hear that AL. Another potentially valuable tool for serious law enforcement turned into a revenue enhancement toy in the hands of local constabulary. :shakehead

oc

[stroker]

The wife got her first ticket ever today. 30 years of driving.

Turns out the local cops all have a new toy for the new year. It is license plate recognition software that automatically scans plates and compares it to a database. Seems the NJ DMV never sent her a registration renewal and she has unknowingly been driving unregistered since July. $54 bucks. We were told he was giving us a break by not towing us. Of course the DMV is closed until Monday so she can't drive.

We saw four other people pulled over within the next ten minutes.

Yeah, but from their perspective she's had the enjoyment of the state's highways free for the last six months. The fact that they failed to notify her in a timely fashion isn't THEIR problem as it's we sheeple who are required to know the law and she should have realized that her registration was expired. As far as they're concerned she should feel lucky she's not on her way to Gitmo.

As for the Geico ads whoever approved the "Caveman" and the "Eyeballs" commercials needs a serious kick in the 'nads.

[cameraman]

The wife got her first ticket ever today. 30 years of driving.

Turns out the local cops all have a new toy for the new year. It is license plate recognition software that automatically scans plates and compares it to a database. Seems the NJ DMV never sent her a registration renewal and she has unknowingly been driving unregistered since July. $54 bucks. We were told he was giving us a break by not towing us. Of course the DMV is closed until Monday so she can't drive.

We saw four other people pulled over within the next ten minutes.

She wouldn't have made it six months in Utah. They mercilessly hunt down expired tags in the Salt Lake Valley. She wouldn't have lasted a month much less six.

[Indy]

How long do you think it will be before we have robot troopers handing out tickets, which will be impossible to beat in court.

I say when they install traffic cameras or any automated enforcement devices, it is our patriotic duty to apply a twelve gauge to the problem.

[Pilgrims Drop]

I say when they install traffic cameras or any automated enforcement devices, it is our patriotic duty to apply a twelve gauge to the problem.
No no no... 12-guage is to simple... the Top Gear Top Tip is to fill the camera box with builders foam (you know the expanding insulating kind) and the box and everything inside goes bye bye :D

cheap and efficient...

[grungex]

Sorry to hear that AL. Another potentially valuable tool for serious law enforcement turned into a revenue enhancement toy in the hands of local constabulary.

And you find this surprising?

In Illinois, they've come up with a new scam law, ostensibly to protect cops who pull people over on the highway. They put up big signs a few years ago saying "Move Over or Slow Down for Emergency Vehicles". Fair enough.

Apparently they weren't getting enough revenue from the tickets issued for this, however, so they recently (and quietly) changed the "or" in the sign to a dash. One of my coworkers was just caught in a trap specifically set up just for this purpose, despite the fact that he pulled a bit wide and slowed down, feeling that the car coming up to the left was coming too fast for him to move completely over to the left lane. :flame:

[miatanut]

Seattle installed one near my house on what used to be my normal route home. The timing on that light is such that you really have to hustle six blocks from the light at the freeway exit to make that light, so it's often a close-cut situation. I got nailed once. The first picture was at 0.05 second. The second was at 0.2 seconds, which isn't enough time for an F1 driver to even get on the brake, let alone get the car stopped. I decided to adopt a different normal route home, and if I go that way, I take a funky early apex line designed to get my license plate out of camera view and then gather the mess up in the far lane of the one way street I'm turning onto.

Strictly revenue generation.

[grungex]

I'm thinking arrays of infrared LEDs surrounding ones license plate might go a long way towards thwarting these cameras...

[SteveH]

I'm thinking arrays of infrared LEDs surrounding ones license plate might go a long way towards thwarting these cameras...

this would be easier, if it works
http://www.phantomplate.com/

http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/parking-ticket-geek/2009/07/red-light-camera-101-do-license-plate-sprays-really-work.html

[RaceGrrl]

One thing our small hometown did right was to vote out the red light cameras. You don't want to piss off a bunch of hicks. There was a very active, very vocal group of people who kept hammering away at the city and finally got a referendum on the ballot this past November, and of course it passed.

http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/29/2945.asp

[grungex]

this would be easier, if it works
http://www.phantomplate.com/

http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/parking-ticket-geek/2009/07/red-light-camera-101-do-license-plate-sprays-really-work.html

Perhaps, but there is some disagreement as to their effectiveness, and Illinois law is pretty specific about the illegality of such treatments.

[oddlycalm]

One thing our small hometown did right was to vote out the red light cameras. You don't want to piss off a bunch of hicks. There was a very active, very vocal group of people who kept hammering away at the city and finally got a referendum on the ballot this past November, and of course it passed.

http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/29/2945.asp

Outstanding :thumbup:

oc

[oddlycalm]

And you find this surprising?
Not hardly, but that doesn't stop me from being sorry when cops have a one dimensional view of their mission.

oc

[Rogue Leader]

Oh, it's worse than that. For decades they've not only pushed for anti-radar detector legislation, they've cancelled the policies of customers who they discover have radar detectors.

I actually worked for GEICO for 6 years. They stopped this policy in the mid 90's. However they used to allow people to mail in their radar detector to prevent their policy cancellation. The rumor around the building was that somewhere in the basement there were cases of old detectors. We went searching for them many times but came up empty handed.

[TKGAngel]

I've got Allstate. Pedro Cerrano trumps Flo and the Gecko/Caveman.

B-lo tried a nice money grab in our neighborhood by switching alternate parking rules from Sunday & Wednesday at 4pm to Monday & Thursday at 6pm. The switch went active on Thanksgiving weekend. Let's just say there were a lot of angry people on Thanksgiving night.

[Indy]

No no no... 12-guage is to simple... the Top Gear Top Tip is to fill the camera box with builders foam (you know the expanding insulating kind) and the box and everything inside goes bye bye :D

cheap and efficient...

Yeah, that is clever, but firing a twelve gauge pump shotgun is the most fun you can have fully clothed. And I gotta a lotta shells I need to burn through... :gomer::gomer::gomer:

[grungex]

Not hardly, but that doesn't stop me from being sorry when cops have a one dimensional view of their mission.

oc

I wish I could be as generous as you -- sorry doesn't even begin to express how I feel about the subject... ;)