Are You A Type-A Yoga Girl or An Oblivious Left-Lane Driver?

Whether you’re an actual Pacific Northwest resident or just a hippie at heart, you might find that the new PEMCO insurance ads hit just a little too close to home.  The campaign features more than 50 profiles of archetypal Seattle residents like “Urban Chicken Farmer,” “Oblivious Left-Lane Occupant” and, of course, “Type-‘A’ Yoga Girl.”

The Washington-based insurance company unveiled these ads in 2007.  Since then, they’ve become wildly popular amongst the self-aware, quirky residents of the Pacific Northwest, so much so that the introduction of new characters warrants a flurry of activity on Facebook and other social networking sites.

Type-“A” Yoga girl, for instance, sports serious workout gear and a battle-ready expression on her face.  “The minute the meeting ends, she’s off—with hair in a ponytail and a yoga mat wrapped so tightly under arm it’d take two downward facing dogs to rip it away from her,” the ad’s copy reads.  “She’s going to find her inner peace.  So don’t even consider getting in her way.”

Yoga girl’s opposite is the Oblivious Left-Lane Occupant, whose laid-back Seattle style is getting on everyone’s nerves.  Apparently, spaced-out drivers going just below the speed limit in the left lane is a common sight in the Pacific Northwest.  Accordingly, Oblivious Left-Lane Occupant has a dopey facial expression and “hands that aren’t even close to flipping on that turn signal.”  Her beverage of choice?  “Decaf tea.”

The ads are featured on billboard and in TV commercials around the Seattle area, but super-crunchy folks they satirize can be found anywhere there’s a yoga studio or a natural foods market.  As the PEMCO ads say, “We’re a lot like you. A little different.”