Progressive Insurance Propaganda Paves Way to Riding with Big Brother

Well, how very progressive of them.

The Progressive Insurance company has begun an aggressive advertising campaign aimed at getting you, the consumer, to willingly install a corporate digital surveillance device in your vehicle. The government has been trying to mandate these so-called "black-boxes" for some time now, and may soon get the legislation passed which will require manufacturers to install these devices on all cars, but this hasn't happened yet.

'Black Box' Standard Coming for Cars

In the meantime, our favorite fascist mascot, Flo, is doing her best to convince the American public that these new devices are fun, hip, and will save you money. Her perky playfulness has now gone to full blown stalker overnight, like a terrible second date. Let's have a look...


Kinda feels like you are riding around with your Mom all over again, as a teenager with a permit. Or it feels like, you get in the car to go for a drive, and look over to see your crazy stalker girlfriend sitting there. 

No, our rates can't go up? What a steaming load of BS that statement is. If they are using the data to "save" you money, they will certainly be punishing "bad" drivers with rate increases over time. Of course, they may not say they are increasing your rates for being a bad driver, they won't itemize a "bad driver fee" on your bill, but they don't have to. It will just be included in your new "standard" rate increase. After all, do you really know how they calculate your insurance rate to start with?

Did you know that your credit score effects your insurance rate? Your credit has nothing to do with how you drive, but that doesn't matter to them. If you ask them about it, they will say it's because your policy is underwritten by a finance company, even if you purchase the full policy upfront for cash on the barrel-head. . The reality of it is that they see someone who has had financial troubles as an irresponsible person who probably drives irresponsibly. A sort of "snapshot" taken from your credit rating. But let's get back to Flo here.

"Shapshot only cares about a few small things. Like how hard you brake, when you are on the road, the miles you drive..."

Granted, hard-braking can be a sign of aggressive driving. Then again, it can also be a sign that you live in a city or otherwise drive in dense traffic conditions, that you drive during rush-hour. But they are keeping track of that too, when you are on the road.

When I am on the road? What does that have to do with anything? There's no rush-hour out in the country, but they are keeping track of the actual times of day you start and stop your car. Creepy. This is data that could be used by police in a criminal investigation, or even as part of a divorce proceeding let's say. It's no longer a matter of your privacy that you chose to go out for a drive at 2 in the morning, for whatever reason.

The miles you drive. Well that doesn't seem so bad. The odometer records that, and you are supposed to tell them an estimate of how many miles you put on your car anyway. The tricky part here is that it is recording each and every trip. With that data, it would not be hard at all for even an amateur investigator to extrapolate exactly where you are driving to every night at 2 a.m. So when Flo tells us that Progressive "just doesn't care about that" it really doesn't matter what she says. Because the police, or your wife's divorce attorney might care about that. You can also bet that Flo will indeed care about that, if the police use that data to show you were coming home from the bar when they stopped you. Who knows in what other ways this data might be used and abused.

As if it weren't bad enough that this creepy girlfriend Flo is all up in your business in ways you never imagined, now you come to find out that she, is a he. Yeah buddy. Flo isn't just your friendly little period-reference mascot, she is actually Big Brother. Check out this creepy commercial.


"Plug" in to the Matrix, mindlessly accept your TSA pat down. You are nothing but an oblivious "fish" in this poker game pal. A bunch of "zombies" just standing there looking at the full display of Orwellian 1984-esque television banks of Flo, your new Big Brother.

So much creepy symbolism there, but really, the TSA pat-down is so blatant. We shift from the average Joe in his living-room to the average sheeple-citizen being molested at the airport. Of all the imagery they could have used there, why a TSA-pat down? Why not someone in a coffee shop? Why not a firefighter? No, we get a blatant "fuck you" from the powers-that-be.

Ignorance is strength!

 Tweet