in 2026, I’m not sure there are two connected words in the modern American vernacular as immediately recognizable as the title of this blog. To be sure, there are slogans and company tag lines in modern media that can be argued to be even more famous than “Liberty Biberty”. Coke: “It’s the real thing”. McDonalds: “I’m lovin’ it”. BMW: “The ultimate driving machine”. Nike: “Just do it”. Those are all more than two words and associated with great companies, but not as loony and quirky as “Liberty Biberty”. Kind of catchy, no? I’m also not sure there is a better set of characters or tag lines that accurately represent the heart of the company that features them.
While “I’m lovin’ it” is a positive message connected to a food product, and “Just do it” is a motivational message associated with an athletic shoe, Liberty Mutual takes associative advertising down a different path. That “liberty biberty” buffoon actor or Doug, the clueless wanna be cop with an Emu wearing those 1970’s sport shorts a bit too small, and the new yellow fuzz ball wearing a statue of liberty crown and who can’t read, all seem to perfectly represent that company.
Somebody in an advertising agency somewhere thought; “You know what? We need to create some funny cartoonish characters that are completely clueless and that will make people remember the name of our insurance company. Other insurance companies have goofy characters after all. We should too.”
That cute little Gecko is at least aware of his surroundings and espouses savings with his company’s products. Flo from Progressive seems to have a good head on her shoulders when talking about coverage and customer service. Jake from State Farm pops up whenever you need him. Yes, characters like that make it easier to remember a company name. The difference here is that those specific characters, goofy or not, are designed to associate positive messaging with the insurance company they represent. Doug from Liberty Mutual? What an intentional moron.
“Liberty Mutual lets you customize your car insurance so you only pay for what you need.” See, I even remember their advertising language. Well done, Doug. But shocker; every car insurance company works exactly the same way. You pick and choose coverage options and deductibles to fit your needs and your budget. That’s how car insurance works, and all major insurance companies do it exactly the same way. Same thing applies to bundling car and home insurance to save money; most companies do that too. Biberty just followed Mad Men logic from Don Draper.
There was an episode from Mad Men where Lucky Strike was in a panic on how to advertise cigarettes when forced to add cancer warnings on the side of each pack. Don Draper simply said, we’ll say “It’s Toasted”. “But everybody toasts their tobacco”, Lucky Strike answers back. Don recognized that since everybody makes the same product they can say whatever they want, they just have to say it first. “No”, he said. “Everybody else’s product causes cancer. Ours is toasted.”
So while Biberty makes you think that only they allow policy customization, nobody else can make a “me too” claim since Biberty said it first. It’s not quite a lie. It’s just strategic advertising. The lie comes in after the fact when you become a long standing Liberty Mutual customer.
Three Times The Cost
I’m writing this because I had a specific experience with Liberty Mutual that I’d like to share. To be clear and to avoid any litigation, I’m going to comment on our own experience with the company and their customer service. It’s still a well rated company and sells good products and I’m sure they have customers that love their policies. Me? Not so much.
We switched to Liberty Mutual at the suggestion of an old employer, also an insurance company who had a partnership agreement with Biberty. We moved our homeowner and auto policies over to Biberty and did save a couple bucks at first, but that was a short lived arrangement. At the time we had coverage on three cars and a modest home to take care of.
Over time, especially when you set up auto-pay on the policy, you tend not to watch or notice small increases in your policy premiums. Year over year we expect things change and prices to increase, maybe in line with inflation. We had no claims to make against home or car for the first 7 years, but eventually were broadsided on one of our older cars, taking out the engine and part of the passenger side door and frame. It was totaled, and the pay out was about $8,000. At the time, their customer service was responsive and the claim was settled fairly.
A couple years later as we approached retirement, we did that responsible thing by reviewing our expenses to consolidate what we could and reduce our overall monthly pay out. It was only then we noticed that our Biberty policy had ballooned up to $6,000 a year. Not just related to the previous accident, the rates had been high for years. We just never looked. I mean, when you’re busy working and just taking care of family things, you tend to trust relationships you have certain companies, insurance being one of them.
When I looked around at other large national insurance companies for comparison, all of them and I mean all of them gave me a quote with exactly the same coverage on home and auto that was 66% less than Biberty. A swapped home and auto policy could be had for around $2,000 with a competitor.
Confused and feeling a bit victimized, I called Biberty to share this news and ask why our policy had risen to this premium level. “I’m sorry sir, this is just how your current policy is priced out” was what I got in response. I asked if I had called to initiate a new policy with the same options, would it still be this high? Then I asked to have the premium at least match a competitor so I could maintain the relationship with Biberty. There was nothing the customer service agent was willing to do. Clueless. It felt like I was actually talking to Doug, or that doofus actor guy, or the yellow puff ball that couldn’t read.
Initially I thought the higher premium was somehow connected to that single accident a few years prior, except that our total payout in insurance premiums over the last 10 year period far exceeded, and I mean FAR exceeded what they paid us back in claims. We paid for our own totaled car like 5 to 6 times over. We parted ways. We’re happier now with another national brand. Our premiums haven’t risen in the past 4 years, aside from minor $10 annual increases for home insurance which I honestly expect.
So it looks like Doug, the Biberty guy and the puff ball are perfect mascots for Liberty Mutual after all. Instead of them portraying cartoonish and humorous spoof characters so you can remember the name of company, they seem to be realistic representations of Liberty Mutual’s understanding of it’s customers and the insurance market. “Clueless”. It’s a perfect word for these guys. At least this is only my opinion, first amendment rights and all. I may be wrong. I’m sure they have happy customers somewhere.
And why write this? Because my YouTube feed and my Hulu channel and literally all my other media channels are littered with Biberty commercials. Endless stupidity. Endless commercials I can’t skip. Endless reminders about how awful our experience was with these guys, punctuated each time with a character as clueless as we found our Biberty customer service agent to be.
Then it made sense. With all the overcharged premiums out there, Biberty must have an endless supply of cash to advertise and I think they need to. I can’t imagine them retaining any business that walks in the door. Cute commercial? Not really. Memorable? Yes. Long term viability for this company when others have better rates and customer service? Questionable. Does this blog have anything to do with woodworking? No. But I do feel better having the opportunity to rant.
It’s the Saturday before Labor Day. If you’re still a working stiff or even if you’re no longer working, I wish you all a nice relaxing weekend, perhaps with some charred goodies fresh off the grill.
Take care.
TFW Woodworking 