SafeAuto Insurance recently produced new commercials that highlighted the benefits of choosing car insurance from SafeAuto. The six commercial spots featured below were part of the “Small But Powerful,” “There’s Never a Bad Time to Call,”  and “Penalties Feel Like This” campaigns. 


  

The concept of invisibility has intrigued the imaginations of countless people over the years. That's why it so often pops up in literature (The Invisible Man, the Harry Potter books), TV series (Star Trek, Heroes), movies (Predator, the Lord of the Rings series), and comics (Fantastic Four, Wonder Woman). Undoubtedly, many forward-thinking dreamers have wondered: what if we could make ordinary objects invisible?

Guess what? Mercedes has created an invisible car!*

*- well… kind of. But not really, Although… forget it. Just keep reading.

Why has the German luxury carmaker decided to undertake this project? Not to further its reputation of excellence in automotive production. Not to pioneer a new feature for future customers. Nope. Mercedes made the invisible car… for marketing purposes.

Confused? We'll explain.

Mercedes-Benz is venturing into the alternative-fuel vehicle market with its B-Class F-Cell car. Unlike many American hybrid vehicles which run on electricity or natural gas, the F-Cell vehicles will be powered by hydrogen fuel cell technology. This allows each F-Cell car to emit nothing more than water vapor - thus eliminating any effect on the environment whatsoever.

This got the people at Mercedes thinking: how do we promote a vehicle that is "invisible" to the environment? The answer was obvious: make the car itself invisible! Just don’t tell the auto insurance companies … that would be a nightmare!

So engineers took one of Mercedes' F-Cell vehicles and completely covered the driver's side and roof with sheets of LED lights, essentially turning it into a large projection screen on wheels. Then they took a Canon video camera and mounted it to the passenger side, and rigged it so that the images captured by the camera would display on the LED screen. Then they drove the tricked-out car around parts of Europe over a week's time.

The result? Well, see (or don't see, as it were) for yourself!

As the Mercedes drives by, people on the driver's side see the images of what is passing by on the passenger side - giving the car the illusion of being invisible!

You may have noticed that the vehicle isn't completely invisible. The bottom halves of the wheels and the outline of the car can be seen. And of course, the invisibility effect only works on that one side; if you walk around to a different side of the car, the illusion is broken.

Mercedes is actively testing a few dozen of its F-Cell cars in California right now, but don't expect to see them in showrooms before about 2015. The German automaker (along with Honda, Suzuki, and a few other companies) is racing to become the first to offer hydrogen fuel cell technology in a production vehicle to the American public. As far as the "invisibility option package" - well, that could take a little longer to perfect.

SafeAuto has been extolling the virtues of its state minimum auto insurance policies for almost 20 years. And some of the company's marketing efforts have yielded exceedingly entertaining commercials. Let's take a look back at the top six most popular SafeAuto spots in history (as determined by the number of views on YouTube as of March 2012), in descending order.

6. Name: "Airport" Views: 25,974

This commercial focuses on one activity that's universally hated: going through airport security. The idea is that simply carrying "the minimum" is easy and painless - both at TSA checkpoints and with auto insurance. It's hard to pick the most ridiculous moment in this spot - but our vote goes to the man who says: "Sir, I'm gonna need you to whinny."

5. Name: "Do The Jingle: Buster Douglas - The Boxing Match" Views: 31,225

Though it won't win awards for realism or production values, this commercial does highlight the notion that driving without auto insurance is like getting into the ring without boxing gloves. And while some commenters have derided its campiness and slow-mo punches, you have to give props to a spot that features one of the few men in history who has knocked out Mike Tyson.

4. Name: "Flash Mob Dance at Easton" Views: 36,400

Who doesn't like a good flash mob? This event was staged at Easton Town Center in Columbus, Ohio (where SafeAuto is based) and expertly performed by more than 100 dancers from Columbus' Pinnell Dance Centre. It has all of the tenets of an excellent flash mob: a spontaneous appearance, expert choreography, and a really catchy song!

3. Name: "MMA" Views: 47,672

Unlike Buster Douglas, mixed martial arts fighter Clay "The Carpenter" Guida didn't hold back anything in this spot. The first-ever Strikeforce Lightweight champion wreaks havoc on the hapless uninsured soul, who is eventually "persuaded" to buy auto insurance. Gold stars go to the intentionally-cheesy facial expressions on both Guida and the powder blue-clad interviewer.

2. Name: "Kicked" Views: 53,949

You know a commercial gets its point across when every male who watches it winces repeatedly. The hilarity associated with these repeated "crotch shots" is amplified by the cringe-worthy sound effects, the ironically soothing classical music score, and the cast of pain inflictors, which includes a woman and a young girl.

1. Name: "Wedgie" Views: 82,842

The wedgie is a classic tool of discomfort and humiliation that has been etched in American lore for decades. But the beauty of this ad is delivered via the excruciating facial expressions and the falsetto screams issued by the hapless victim (and don't click STOP before you've reached the end). It's no wonder that this spot is easily the most-watched SafeAuto commercial of all time.

This commercial focuses on one activity that's universally hated: going through airport security. The idea is that simply carrying "the minimum" is easy and painless - both at TSA checkpoints and with auto insurance. It's hard to pick the most ridiculous moment in this spot - but our vote goes to the man who says: "Sir, I'm gonna need you to whinny."

5. Name: "Do The Jingle: Buster Douglas - The Boxing Match" Views: 31,225

Though it won't win awards for realism or production values, this commercial does highlight the notion that driving without auto insurance is like getting into the ring without boxing gloves. And while some commenters have derided its campiness and slow-mo punches, you have to give props to a spot that features one of the few men in history who has knocked out Mike Tyson.

4. Name: "Flash Mob Dance at Easton" Views: 36,400

Who doesn't like a good flash mob? This event was staged at Easton Town Center in Columbus, Ohio (where SafeAuto is based) and expertly performed by more than 100 dancers from Columbus' Pinnell Dance Centre. It has all of the tenets of an excellent flash mob: a spontaneous appearance, expert choreography, and a really catchy song!

3. Name: "MMA" Views: 47,672

Unlike Buster Douglas, mixed martial arts fighter Clay "The Carpenter" Guida didn't hold back anything in this spot. The first-ever Strikeforce Lightweight champion wreaks havoc on the hapless uninsured soul, who is eventually "persuaded" to buy auto insurance. Gold stars go to the intentionally-cheesy facial expressions on both Guida and the powder blue-clad interviewer.

2. Name: "Kicked" Views: 53,949

You know a commercial gets its point across when every male who watches it winces repeatedly. The hilarity associated with these repeated "crotch shots" is amplified by the cringe-worthy sound effects, the ironically soothing classical music score, and the cast of pain inflictors, which includes a woman and a young girl.

1. Name: "Wedgie" Views: 82,842

The wedgie is a classic tool of discomfort and humiliation that has been etched in American lore for decades. But the beauty of this ad is delivered via the excruciating facial expressions and the falsetto screams issued by the hapless victim (and don't click STOP before you've reached the end). It's no wonder that this spot is easily the most-watched SafeAuto commercial of all time.