Tegan is mad at Flo from Progressive. Arguably, it’s her own fault: she leaves the TV on overnight as a sort of background noise. This leaves her and her fiancé at the mercy of whatever commercials run while they’re dozing. A new spot for Progressive insurance that advertises their mobile app features the loud, prominent sound of a vibrating phone. Most TV watchers might glance at their own phones in confusion, but Tegan was asleep, and was on call for work, so when she heard the vibrating sound, she woke up to check her phone.

Thought I’d share my most recent frustration with advertising, the new Progressive commercial. If you watch that unfortunate piece of marketing, you will surely notice the very loud vibrating noises at the end like a cell phone set to vibrate is ringing.

Now, the back story – my fiance and I usually leave the TV on at a low volume overnight for the background noise, etc. Yes, I know lots of people discourage this and it’s bad for you and whatever, but it works for us. Also, we both work in IT in a position where we are required to be on call for a week at a time for any production emergencies. This week just so happens to be my week on call, so as usual, I keep my work phone on vibrate on my nightstand overnight so if it rings it will wake me up, but not my fiance. I woke up probably 5 or 6 times last night thinking that my phone was ringing, and every time I looked at it nothing was happening. I didn’t know what was going on until that infernal commercial came on again while I was getting dressed this morning and it clicked.

Now I know some people find Flo grating and annoying, but I’ve never cared about her or Progressive that much one way or the other. After this commercial, though, I can say with certainty that Progressive will not be on the list anytime my fiance and I have future insurance needs. Interfering with my sleep is not something I take lightly!

Okay, so it’s not quite a candidate for the “Worst Ad in America” tournament, but it’s pretty annoying.

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