Flo from Progressive Insurance commercials
Portrayed by Stephanie Courtney
2008-present
Flo from the Progressive commercials is a fictional character used repeatedly for advertising. Earnest Elmo Calkins, the "Dean of Advertising," was the first to use a fictional character to advertise a product, during the time of American Modernism. Phoebe Snow, who wore all white, claimed that cleaner materials used for railroads would keep your clothes clean. Calkins created short poems to capture the audiences' attention, similar to how Flo uses her peppy and upbeat personality. This idea of using the same fictional character as a spokesperson for a product began with Calkin's Phoebe Snow and this idea is used today in many company's advertising.
Apple iPhone 6
Released October 2014
Another idea introduced by Earnest Elmo Calkins that we discussed in class this week is the idea of planned obsolescence, that he referred to as "styling goods" or "consumer engineering", meaning people replace their belongings when fashion changes, rather than when things break. An example of this is the release of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 plus. People rushed out to get the larger phone just because it is a new style over phones with smaller screens, even if their current, smaller phone worked perfectly fine. We mentioned in class that this was also popular in the 1950s when appliances would come out in many different colors, and when they became out of style, people would upgrade to a different style before the appliance broke.
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