Vintage The Hartford “Buck” Commercial

Taking a trip back in time to 1973 with a commercial from The Hartford that was made before most of our readers (and this writer) were born.

Summary

Black and white commercial opens in a junkyard with music faded in.

Announcer: Accidents cost more today and that’s The Hartford’s business.

The Harford buck is seen walking around the junkyard.

Announcer: Compared with 1966, the average property damage, liability claim is up 56%. Is your insurance updated for that? That’s The Hartford’s business.

Cars are being towed around the junkyard and the buck is looking into the cars through broken windshields.

Announcer: The average bodily injury claim is up 48%. Is your coverage updated for that? That’s The Hartford’s business. Insurance by The Hartford; you are our business.

Commercial goes to the shadow of a buck (it may just be the quality of the video) and the slogan, “You are our business”, on the screen.

Screen switches to the company mascot and “The Hartford” to close the commercial. On the bottom of the screen is the words “The Hartford Insurance Group, Hanford, Connecticut”.

Point of the Commercial

The Hartford is getting across that they will be there for you when you have an accident. Also that they will look out for you to make sure that you have enough insurance coverage for the increasing costs of accidents.

The points that they make in this commercial from 1973 are not much different than some of the points made in insurance commercials today. One thing that they don’t mention, that is so very common today, is the cost. They don’t even talk about their insurance rates, let alone try to convince the viewer that their rates are lower.

What They Want you to Do

There is no request for action in this commercial, like there is in today’s advertising. They obviously want you to purchase an insurance policy with them, but they don’t tell you how.

There is a reason for this. Back then, there were no insurance websites or call centers to contact the insurance companies through. Your local insurance agent was the only way you were going to get an insurance policy. So, when this commercial was made, they didn’t have to list all the different ways to contact them; there was only one.

My Opinion

I am going to refrain from giving my opinion on this one. This commercial was from a very different era from what I grew up in and definitely from what I studied advertising in. Mostly, I chose this one because I wanted to share what a vintage insurance commercial looked like. Hopefully, I will be able to find more from each of the different decades.