# Flo, The Progressive Insurance Chick **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 12, 2009, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flo-the-progressive-insurance-chick/492856 "2009-04-12T16:58:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flo-the-progressive-insurance-chick/492856/101 "2009-09-14T10:07:42Z")
> [@FordTaurusSHO94](#): > > The new pair of shoes woman needs to make another appearance. Buffy Summers? (I know it’s not SMG, but she sure reminds me of her!) ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flo-the-progressive-insurance-chick/492856/102 "2009-09-14T10:36:10Z")
> [@FriarTed](#): > > Buffy Summers? > > (I know it’s not SMG, but she sure reminds me of her!) I see Little Nemo pointed that out in the FIRST FREAKIN’ PAGE! _L_ ---
**Author:** ![sittininlab](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/54ee81/32.png) [@sittininlab](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sittininlab)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flo-the-progressive-insurance-chick/492856/103 "2009-09-14T16:51:34Z")
I too think she’s cute, and she falls into that class of attractive for reasons you cannot quite explain that include The Tivo Girl: Shanan Carney The Red Haired Woman from the Sonic Ads: Molly Erdman And don’t even get me started about The Weather Channel. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flo-the-progressive-insurance-chick/492856/104 "2009-09-14T18:24:45Z")
My wife named her new car Flo after her. We don’t even have insurance with that company. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flo-the-progressive-insurance-chick/492856/105 "2009-09-14T18:35:13Z")
> [@AskNott](#): > > My wife named her new car Flo after her. We don’t even have insurance with that company. So when she drives, she goes with the Flo? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![dobieman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7c8e57/32.png) [@dobieman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dobieman)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2009, 8:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flo-the-progressive-insurance-chick/492856/106 "2009-09-15T08:41:54Z")
There are 5 commercials that send me heading for the MUTE button at speeds sometimes exceeding mach 2.7. 1. Roni Deutsch; 2. Billy Mays ads (which are thankfully fewer since his death); 3. The vegetable dicer guy that thinks he is Billy Mays resurrected; 4. The Progressive commercials with Flo; and 5. Any Viagra/Extenz/etc type of ad but especially those featuring “Smilin’ Bob” or whomever he is. In addition, just about anything with Sarah Palin will have me switching channels as well. I fear the only thing I find evasive about Flo is where the remote is so I can mute her out. ---
**Author:** ![Serenata67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/serenata67/32/10646_2.png) [@Serenata67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Serenata67)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2009, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flo-the-progressive-insurance-chick/492856/107 "2009-09-15T12:23:20Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > She seems to me to be the type that starts talking about whatever pops into her head at the wrong moment. Which makes her so much like me… and that’s why I think she’s great. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2009, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flo-the-progressive-insurance-chick/492856/108 "2009-09-15T15:56:19Z")
> [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](#): > > Dear Miss Manners > > I am smitten with Progressive Insurances’s fictional character Flo. What is the best way to ask her, Erin Esuarance (and possibly the Geico lizard) out on a date? > > yours > > TD Dear _ **Penthouse** _… The thing is with Flo and that woman from the Sonic commercials, is that they are funny. These women are funny and funny is sexy. Why? Because sex itself is ridiculous so a woman with a sense of humor is going to be good in bed. ---
**Author:** ![palindromemordnilap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/db5fbb/32.png) [@palindromemordnilap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/palindromemordnilap)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2009, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flo-the-progressive-insurance-chick/492856/109 "2009-09-15T16:43:26Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > I also know a Progressive exec, and he says the company’s been hard-pressed by Geico, with its cavemen and gekko. They’ve been losing market share and needed something distinctive to differentiate themselves. My recent experience might help explain this: Realizing that my State Farm car insurance agent was ripping me off, I went to Progressive to get one of those quotes where they show you all the competitors’ bids. Whattaya know, the site made this feature difficult to find and then only offered one competitor’s price (Nationwide!? Not even on my radar screen.) Progressive’s price was a savings of more than $200 a year compared to SF, but when I went to Geico’s site, I got a bid that was $200 a year less than Progressive’s. FTR, I hate the cavemen, love the gecko, and am strangely enthralled/repulsed by Flo. ---
**Author:** ![palindromemordnilap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/db5fbb/32.png) [@palindromemordnilap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/palindromemordnilap)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2009, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flo-the-progressive-insurance-chick/492856/110 "2009-09-15T16:50:04Z")
> [@dobieman](#): > > 1. Any Viagra/Extenz/etc type of ad but especially those featuring “Smilin’ Bob” or whomever he is. Amen to this one, dobieman. My other “must-mutes” are the on-line travel reservation line that amps its commercials to 300 decibels, that 5-hour energy ad, and the horror/slasher movie-of-the-week spot that always seems to run at the 20-minute mark of The Daily Show (currently “Jennifer’s Body”). ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2009, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flo-the-progressive-insurance-chick/492856/111 "2009-09-15T16:52:01Z")
> [@palindromemordnilap](#): > > My recent experience might help explain this: Realizing that my State Farm car insurance agent was ripping me off, I went to Progressive to get one of those quotes where they show you all the competitors’ bids. Whattaya know, the site made this feature difficult to find and then only offered one competitor’s price (Nationwide!? Not even on my radar screen.) Progressive’s price was a savings of more than $200 a year compared to SF, but when I went to Geico’s site, I got a bid that was $200 a year less than Progressive’s. > > FTR, I hate the cavemen, love the gecko, and am strangely enthralled/repulsed by Flo. I don’t get it, you chose your auto insurance based on price and not the appeal of their commercial spokesperson/animal? That’s nonsense. ---
**Author:** ![dobieman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7c8e57/32.png) [@dobieman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dobieman)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2009, 8:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flo-the-progressive-insurance-chick/492856/112 "2009-09-16T08:47:04Z")
However, my personal opinions of these various advertising personae aside, I would suggest part of Flo’s allure to some might be in that her make-up and the way her hairstyle frames her face suggests a certain resemblance to Betty Page, pin-up queen of an earlier time, c’est possible? ---
**Author:** ![maladroit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f475e1/32.png) [@maladroit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maladroit)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2009, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flo-the-progressive-insurance-chick/492856/113 "2009-10-01T20:27:02Z")
I think they should cast Christine Willies ([http://www.filmdope.com/Gallery/ActorsW/67570.gif](http://www.filmdope.com/Gallery/ActorsW/67570.gif)) as Flo’s mom. She’s the lady that played Delores Herbig on Dead Like Me and Gladys on The Reaper. I just saw her on one of the new shows this last week, but I can’t remember which one. When I saw her I totally flashed on Flo, they seem like kindred spirits and have a physical resemblance as well. (my first hyperlink attempt, crossing my fingers, will be back to edit if it fails) eta hyperlink failed not once but twice, reverting to the old method - I will prevail, just not right now. ---
**Author:** ![VarlosZ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d78d45/32.png) [@VarlosZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VarlosZ)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2009, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flo-the-progressive-insurance-chick/492856/114 "2009-10-01T20:57:14Z")
> [@Beware\_of\_Doug](#): > > I would say Flo’s magnetism is multi-dimensional. In the Austin360 piece, Courtney herself suggests Flo is a highly “asexual” character. If that’s true, it’s true only on the surface. > > First there’s her name. “Flo” is the mythical aunt associated with the menstrual cycle. What could be more female, more suggestive of woman’s sexual mystique and the cultural “curse of Eve”? Yes, Flo is woman eternal - woman writ large. > > And not just in her name, but in her seductive makeup and crisp white uniform - which call up the pure-but-dirty dichotomy so central to many men’s desires - and her irrepressible, effervescent, very-possibly-flirtatious personality. She is business, true, but is she _all_ business? Textually, we’re left to wonder - but subtextually, we know otherwise. Flo’s promise goes far beyond bargain-priced coverage - she betokens the heterosexual female at her most sensual, free, and pleasure-loving. I must admit that your analysis is at least somewhat more in depth than my own, which can be expressed thusly: “I want to put my penis in that.” ---
**Author:** ![sethness](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aca169/32.png) [@sethness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sethness)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2009, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flo-the-progressive-insurance-chick/492856/115 "2009-10-06T07:49:45Z")
Aside from astroturfing / stealth advertising, is there ANY reason for this inane thread on The Straight Dope’s forum? I reckon there’s a 90% chance of astroturfing, in the OP. > **[Astroturfing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astroturfing)** > > Astroturfing is the practice of hiding the sponsors of a message or organization (e.g., political, advertising, religious, or public relations) to make it appear as though it originates from, and is supported by, grassroots participants. It is a practice intended to give the statements or organizations credibility by withholding information about the source's financial backers. The term astroturfing is derived from AstroTurf, a brand of synthetic carpeting designed to resemble natural grass, as ... ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2009, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flo-the-progressive-insurance-chick/492856/116 "2009-10-06T07:53:40Z")
Yes, registering 6 years ago and making 700 posts was part of his plan to one day make a post that makes reference to an advertising campaign. It’s almost as insidious a plan as when Obama’s parents put a fake ad out in the Hawaii paper announcing his birth 48 years ago because they knew he’d be president. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2009, 10:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flo-the-progressive-insurance-chick/492856/117 "2009-10-06T10:33:04Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#): > > Yes, registering 6 years ago and making 700 posts was part of his plan to one day make a post that makes reference to an advertising campaign. It’s almost as insidious a plan as when Obama’s parents put a fake ad out in the Hawaii paper announcing his birth 48 years ago because they knew he’d be president. Compared to that guy who registers and has been raising dead threads going back years, with lots of “omg astroturfing!” responses among them, I think we can stand a few “Flo? WTF?” threads! 🙂 (I fall on the “I like her” side, but I wish they’d make more variety if they’re going to play her commercials.) ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2009, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flo-the-progressive-insurance-chick/492856/118 "2009-10-06T11:24:10Z")
> [@sethness](#): > > Aside from astroturfing / stealth advertising, is there ANY reason for this inane thread on The Straight Dope’s forum? > > I reckon there’s a 90% chance of astroturfing, in the OP. > > [Astroturfing - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astroturfing) Geepers kid. Just because you get a new hammer, everything doesn’t suddenly become a nail. We are talking about Flo because she is freaky hawt, you just know she has some interesting piercings or tats under that uniform… I’ll be in my bunk. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2009, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flo-the-progressive-insurance-chick/492856/119 "2009-10-06T12:35:13Z")
> [@sethness](#): > > Aside from astroturfing / stealth advertising, is there ANY reason for this inane thread on The Straight Dope’s forum? > > I reckon there’s a 90% chance of astroturfing, in the OP. > > [Astroturfing - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astroturfing) I reckon you’re wrong – and accusing others of trolling is against our rules. This gives you your second warning. twickster, Cafe Society moderator ---
**Author:** ![Death\_of\_Rats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a6a055/32.png) [@Death\_of\_Rats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Death_of_Rats)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2009, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flo-the-progressive-insurance-chick/492856/120 "2009-10-06T14:01:51Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > [Stephanie Courtney - IMDb](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0183960/) > > [Stephanie Courtney - Biography - IMDb](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0183960/bio) > > Much better looking with less makeup. She’s done quite a bit of TV work. Anyone else find it funny that she appeared in the Cavemen series? Does that mean that Flo is so easy even a Caveman can do her? 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flo-the-progressive-insurance-chick/492856.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flo-the-progressive-insurance-chick/492856.md?page=7)