Ed Helms Shares His Musical Talents for Progressive Insurance’s ‘Driver’s Ed’ Series

In its first campaign to target Gen Z, Progressive and the creative team at Arnold have tapped into Ed Helms’ musical talents for an all-digital campaign, Progressive Presents: Driver’s Ed with Ed Helms. A series of three music videos, each song features an important insurance lesson – in true Progressive fashion of course!

Insure You Do is an 80s rock song where Ed, dressed for the part, asks the question, “do you need insurance when you buy a car?” Spoiler alert: insure you do!

Girl, You Drive Me Safely pays homage to the iconic all-white outfitted boy bands and teen idols of the early 2000s via a fun pop tune, congratulating a new teen diver and saying goodbye to their learner’s permit. 

Covering You serves as a gentle reminder of the need for your own policy once you move out of your parent’s, with an ode to over-the-top garb and ballads of country music artists. Because when it comes to country music, we go big.

When tasked with targeting one of the largest generations, Arnold knew it had to meet Gen Z where they engage and become engrossed in fresh content daily — online. And while they can quote The Office in their sleep, car insurance typically isn’t the next TikTok video they are watching. Thus, the partnership with Ed to write funny songs about the otherwise mundane, dull insurance facts they need to know, was born.   

The campaign, rooted in Gen Z insights of where and how they consume media, underscores Progressive’s commitment to making insurance and insurance knowledge accessible to all, especially to future young drivers.

Sean McBride, chief creative officer: “Our clients at Progressive came to us with a simple problem: how could they educate the next generation of drivers about the realities of car insurance? We responded with Driver’s Ed with Ed Helms. The Office is one of the most streamed shows in history, and has a sneaky-massive Gen Z viewership. And Ed was so perfect for this - he manages to combine music and humour with this earnest, loveably nerdy responsibleness, which manages to make the information credible even as its dripping in silliness. While our creative reference points were stuff like Tenacious D and Flight of the Conchords, in the end the team made something that is very unique to this. We were lucky enough to get DJ Javerbaum of Daily Show fame to write the lyrics.”