Mellers

The Mellers were released Friday morning on house arrest to their daughter’s house in Petah Tikva.

Mellers Primary School head teacher Amanda Dawson said: "I've just had a message from the elder daughter that they have landed in Dubai, which is wonderful."

Barbara Mellers, a professor of marketing and psychology at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, points out that they’re both simple in concept and surprising in content, which is a winning combination for a memorable ad.

Plus, advertisers are always going for relatability: “The more similar a person in an ad is to you, the easier it is for you to imagine yourself in that person’s place,” Mellers said.

As Mellers pointed out, though, what may be making the Progressive ads stick so well in the public imagination is that they point out a phenomenon that’s familiar but hasn’t been parodied to the point of being a trope.