There are a variety of ways, most of them driven by consumer data, but also by a company's financial performance. For example, several years ago, Progressive ran commercials starring "The Box." That character was a secondary campaign, similar what Dr. Rick is now. The data showed that new policy applications increased in the weeks following the airing of a new commercial starring The Box character. It was a very successful campaign for several years, and helped to extend the life cycle of Flo by not saturating the market with Flo commercials.

Advertising is expensive. No well run company is going to keep pumping money into an unsuccessful campaign. That doesn't mean there aren't bad ad campaigns, but the bad ones don't usually last very long.