You are now entering Ad Space, a realm of commercials, brought before us so we might examine how they work, and discuss why we both love and hate them so. So it is written …

The Product:
Eagle Insurance

The Promotion:

The Pitch:
Eagle Insurance has low rates and – gah! … We’re sorry. The eagle looked so much friendlier in storyboards.

Normally here on Ad Space, I try to analyze the decision making that went into an ad. Why, of all the ways they could promote their product, companies chose the approach they did.

That’s not the case here. There’s nothing special about what this ad is trying to do. The company’s called Eagle Insurance, so create some sort of eagle mascot, have it help out two people in need of auto insurance, then move right into talking about how great your rates are. As basic as can be.

What makes this ad stand out is that, being a local commercial, it doesn’t have the professional polish you expect from larger advertising campaigns. The vision for the ad may have been simple, but that doesn’t mean the folks making it had the skills to pull it off.

The two women who hear something land on the roof of their car, and declare, “It must be Eagleman!” … they probably weren’t supposed to sound wary or afraid of Eagleman’s presence. Eagleman himself, and the eaglet he lays, probably weren’t supposed to look or sound so creepy (“I have something for you!“) Him squatting down to lay an egg … I don’t think that was meant to look like him dropping a deuce on the car. And the two women saying “Look at those low rates” at the end is just poor line delivery; it’s not supposed to sound like Eagleman now has them under mesmeric power.

But put all those little deficiencies together, and you’ve got an ad that seems to say, “We’re sending disturbing eagle/human hybrids to hunt you down and do some weird ass stuff!“

Which, inadvertently, made it far more memorable than 99.99% of local TV commercials. Hooray for succeeding by accident!