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Bah, Humbug!Castigating Christmas at the office.

Compiled by Geoffrey Andersen
Updated Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2006, at 4:13 PM ET

(Continued from page 5)

Sophie believes Dean and the Democrats have a rosy future ahead:

Dean delivered when the media, pre-election day results, showed a smiling Rove and were tepidly predicting a house only win by the Democrats. Carville wasted no time, much the same as the Republicans, recasting a stunning victory into something less than it could have been. Jealousy must have got the better of him.

Carville should recognize the Democrats struggled from 1994 until this election cycle with the old paradigms of campaigning, mostly his. While it could be argued Dean could have done better, no one before him managed it any better, and actually did worse.

Dean is a smart guy. He'll read the results and adjust for 2008. The democrats would be monumentally stupid to even consider removing him from the job. It looks like he may have found his place in politics and for the party, that is good.

Personally, I'm too myopic to guess what happens next. But, given the tedious tragedy of staying the course, the New Uncertainty strikes me as an incontrovertibly good thing.

Do you have an idea of what's coming next for America? All visions and prophecies are welcome in The Big Idea Fray. GA … 2:40am PT

Thursday, Nov. 16, 2006

The sheer number of responses to Seth Stevenson's Ad Report Card is testament to the consumer awareness—if not success—of Esurance's latest ad campaign featuring the pink-haired anime figure Erin. For those of us unfamiliar, Rrhain recaps the origin story behind this Esurance girl who "chased by spies, crashes into a car dealership" and makes a quick getaway in another car, thanks to instant proof of auto insurance. Jack_Cerf provides here an even more detailed etymology of her character.

For some, the ads are undeniably seductive. In this gushing post, pete1051 admits to a crush on Erin. After watching the spot, Birdy96 says her "attention was instantly grabbed" by the "bright colored cartoon characters."

From a marketing standpoint, Xando considers it very effective targeting of "certain demographics - namely, reasonably geeky guys who 'get' the pop culture references … that nicely coincides with the kind of people who would buy auto insurance off the web." Similarly, in this five-point minimanifesto on why Esurance ads rock, qsc concedes that age has a lot to do with the favorability of people's reactions: "it may come down to the fact that these commercials are for 30 year olds and younger, (and especially those who like anime and/or cartoons and/or action movies and/or hot-anime-chicks)."

For beatsworkin, however, the campaign is animated (literally) by a good premise, only to be undermined by "poor production quality":

In the clip Stevenson reviews, "auto insurance" is heard three times, "Esurance" is heard six times, and the entire dialogue is peppered with insurance jargon. The animation is appealing to Esurance's target market. The bright colors and fast-paced action held my attention span long enough for the company's name and purpose to settle in.

That said, there is a fatal flaw in the Esurance ad: poor production quality. The spot has a cheap, "local business" air about it. The voice-overs are unrealistically detached, the animation looks dated, and the background music is too quiet and formulaic. All of this makes me think of Esurance as a well-meaning company with poor execution--not what I want in an auto insurance provider.

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Moira Redmond is a freelance writer and a former Slatester. You can e-mail her at .
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