Thoughts

Ads About Town: Policygenius

The birds are chirping. The skies are finally clearing up. We’ve definitely got spring fever. What better way to welcome this elusive season than by sharing some poetic advertising? This latest ad campaign from Policygenius is making our hearts flutter.

These Policygenius ads might grab your attention as you ride the subway since they give homage to the MTA’s Poetry in Motion ad series. With some creative copywriting, Policygenius has turned selling insurance online into a witty work of art. Poetry and advertising lovers, rejoice!

Birth / What does it mean / to catch a butterfly? / To hold beauty in your hands / the caterpillar reborn... / This subway poem is going / off topic. / To be honest / this isn't our fote at all / However / we are very good / at comparing life insurance / online.

HOmage / As lovers of poetry, / we set out to write an homage. / But no sooner did we begin / than stumble. / As it turns out, / it is difficult to rhyme with 'homage.' / We could only thing of 'fromage.' / That's french for 'cheese.' / We aren't experts in cheese. / Or poetry. / We just make it easy / to compare life insurance online.

To Compare / Blackberries / Fresh milk / All these things / are talked about / in other subwway poems. / So / we included them / in this one / We have the space / All we need to say /is that we make it easy / to compare life insurance online.

Poetry / is hard / because / you never know / when to / begin / a new line. / But you must, or / it's just / a regular sentence. / Thankfully compare / life insurance online is easy. / Maybe do that instead.

I'm a sucker for ads that mock other ads.

As someone who doesn't really get poetry, I love them. All poetry is that nonsensical to me

oooh I saw these on the subway a few days ago!

Love these. I saw the 'Birth' ad alone first and was successfully tricked into thinking ti was an MTA Poetry in Motion ad. I think the campaign is very clever but works best as a subway car takeover so passengers don't miss the point (We are very good at comparing life insurance online).

An insurane ad in the subway / Uses poetry to sell you a policy. / The poem's end has a twist. / So here is the gist. / It only works if it's read all the way.

Even though I'm not a HUGE poetry fan, I still read them in the subway and most of the time end up being confused (trying to figure out wth i just read) but these ads will surely make me smile.

I don't midn that you have to read to the end to get the point. I like the (new?) trend of subway ads that require engagement, like the Casper where's waldo-style ads. You're a captive audience anyway.

The old poems from the "Poetry in MOtion" series has been around since I can remember. I also remember people being slightly annoyed that they never seemed to use NYC poets or took submissions. So I welcome the mockery lol

That's interesting background. I wonder how the poet community feels about the poetry spoof campaign ha

I don't pay enough attention to the poems to know how often they change, but I think the art turns over fairly regularly (also the Museum of the City of NY recently had an exhibition about public art with a lot of the subway art that was really interesting)

Ads About Town is True North’s ongoing series of blog posts about the interesting ads we see and snap photos of on our way to and from work and then chat about at length in the office. Keep an eye out for the next one!