This week's insurance ad comes to you from Nationwide Auto Insurance. They created the ad in 2007 and it features a mischievous little boy who accompanies his parent to "Take Your Child to Work Day" and decides to have a little fun with the little bank tube that sucks up the transaction container used for drive-thru banking.

A reddit user posted a photo of him standing with actor Dennis Haysbert with the submission title "Dennis Haysbert aka 'The Allstate Guy' had lunch with me and friends today on our base in Italy. Great guy. Thanks for the support." Needless to say, some users poked fun at the poster identifying Haysbert as "The Allstate Guy" instead of recognizing him from his various acting jobs. 

Anyone not from the Pacific Northwest has probably missed out on the phenomenon that is Vern Fonk Insurance. The Washington insurance agency that specializes in drivers with tickets or DUIs made a name for themselves with a series of ridiculously low budget (and awesomely cheesy) ads airing on late night television. The commercials generated enough attention that the firm became a "quirky Seattle icon."

An actuary named Roosevelt Mosley Jr. who is a principal at Pinnacle Actuarial Resources analyzed tweets about major insurance companies and determined what the general public thought of some of the most prevalent ads airing today. Among his findings, he determined that the jealous wife arguing with her husband about "Jake from State Farm" at 3:00 in the morning is a well-liked ad, while the Geico pig is polarizing (which we already knew). 

The latest superhero movie getting buzz is Marvel's 'The Avengers,' which hits theaters May 4th. Farmer's Insurance is launching a promotional ad tie-in starring actor J.K. Simmons, who has appeared in a number of Farmer's commercials as Professor Nathanial Burke, as well as six sidekick agents dressed in homemade Avengers costumes while pushing the tagline, "We're the superheroes of insurance!"

Last week I shared Geico's 'easier way to save' campaign that featured a variety of videos centered on someone who was trying to save money via absurd means. One of the stranger videos in the series involved a man who taught guinea pigs to generate electricity to power his computer by rowing a tiny boat. Geico has an extended version of the ad that's even more amusingly odd than the finished product. 

You may have noticed a few of Geico's commercials from their 'Easier Way to Save' series which have been airing since last summer. Each ad highlights someone who has adopted an unusual and somewhat absurd method to try and save some money. The short videos range from a man trying to find a mate via karaoke instead of online dating, a couple who has adopted a "rescue panther" to protect their home, and a man who hired some teenage girls to ridicule him into losing weight.

In Late February State Farm uploaded a series of short (less than 30 seconds long) ads that center on a different basketball team. Each ad depicts some fans who run into some sort of mascot-related mishap. For example, a Cleveland Cavaliers fan encounters two actual swashbuckling cavaliers swordfighting on his car, and he sighs and whips out his cell phone while muttering, "My State Farm agent is gonna love this."