• by Barbara Lippert , Columnist, July 16, 2024

Of all the first-named doctors who are not real doctors on TV, my favorite is the fictional Dr. Rick, the Progressive Insurance “parent-child coach” who runs groups sessions to “help young homeowners who are starting to turn into their parents” not do that.

Unlike Dr. Phil, who’s into his own fame, fortune, and wife Robin in a way he never lets us forget, Dr. Rick, (the actor Bill Glass) never gets old, even in heavy rotation.  He’s got serious satirical chops, and has easily earned a Ph.D. in authentic deadpan comedy performance..

What I find hard to believe -- and here a massive hat tip to agency Arnold Worldwide is in order -- is that Rick, the good, calm, therapist daddy we all wished we had, first appeared back in late 2016.  I thought he was more recent.

Whereas another kind of peculiarly effective, louder and more offbeat character, Flo, has been successfully selling the Progressive home and auto bundle message since the George W. Bush administration, in 2008.

For an agency to have sustained these two separate campaigns, featuring so many irresistible satirical  characters in thousands of commercials over the equivalent of advertising dog years, is miraculous.

Some of the spots are better than others, but I still find myself laughing at new iterations featuring the Flo team.  Lately, a commercial called “Who’s the Boss?" is trademark touchy and awkward, with none of the sweet employee family, including the many-dimensional, now-iconic Flo, wanting to own up to having that title. All except for the ever-thin-skinned and put-out Jamie, who defensively announces, “We’ve never discussed hierarchy.”

But you’d think that by now Dr. Rick, with his monomaniacal focus on “Parentamorphosis,” as he calls it, would have worn out his welcome. With all the varied neuroses in the world, how many ways can you keep extending the same joke?

After all, not everyone grew up in a suburban house with solid, fastidious homeowner parents.  Not everyone wants a house. And some millennials and older-young people are furious that unlike their elders, they’ll never be able to afford homeownership.

But with superb writing, casting and acting (hiring talented improv performers), the not-your-parents gags resonate, offering universal moments of recognition, regardless.

In the very first spot, the group met and quickly exhibited parental morphication.

One guy said, “Why is the door open? Are we air-conditioning the whole neighborhood?” Boy, was that my dad.

And now, after eight years or so of offering firm guidance on getting rid of the plastic bag of plastic bags, Dr. Rick is busting out, enjoying his biggest multimedia spotlight yet.

Progressive and Arnold arranged a Dr. Rick appearance in a four-minute sponsored segment, “Ready Set, Party” with “Good Morning America”’s meteorologist, Ginger Zee.

Something like this, weaving a guy playing an ad character on set with live news, or at least light editorial news/entertainment, could easily go sideways. Zee is not an actor, and they could bring dissonant energies.  But it worked, so much so that the production crew could be heard loudly laughing.

The doc, in his V-neck sweater, tie, and moustache, was offering hosting tips for July  4^th   parties and beyond, a topic that is also the subject of a new commercial.

For starters, Rick offered conversational topics to avoid: “Traffic. No one needs to know how you got there. Weather. The grill.”

“The grill is not the problem, he added.  “To me, it’s the aprons. Aprons are not for puns or anyone in lederhosen.  If you see someone with the six pack abs apron, it’s a cry for  help.”

In the 30-second ad version, he goes over to the hapless character manning the grill, sporting  a “Grills just wanna have fun” apron.

Dr. Rick issues a firm no, pulling it, and says “Aprons are for cooking, not for Dad jokes.”

A second spot, “Weather,” is the Father of all weather-discussion clichés. There’s a joke about the Dew line and what they do with the Doppler.  “How many people is he calling?” Dr. Rick asks the wife of a guy who’s on the phone, alerting family and neighbors to a coming storm. “I’m going in,” Rick says.

Progressive has also tapped Dr. Rick to appear in its first “airport-specific” campaign, with OOH placements in New York, Miami and Los Angeles airports.

Visitors to New York’s JFK, for example, will see a free vending machine filled with copies of Dr. Rick’s quite funny faux-advice book, “Dr. Rick Will See You Now,” which won a Silver Lion at Cannes in 2022, and a Gold for the audiobook version in 2023.

And the Dr. Rick roll in Cannes continued last month, when the campaign won a Bronze Lion.

As always at the spot’s end, a perfectly faux-solemn voiceover delivers the tightly worded, ever-simple message, “Progressive can’t save you from becoming your parents.  But we can save you money when you bundle home and auto with us. “

In the end, it’s only human to become our parents -- all too soon. The non-doctor who plays one has his work cut out for him, for generations.