Progressive denies defending the person who killed its policyholder

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[UPDATE: Read the comments in Cory's post here. The court records show that Progressive did indeed participate in the killer's legal defense] Adweek has a short item about Progressive Insurance's "social media crisis" resulting from Matt Fisher's claim that the insurer defended his sister's "killer in court in an effort not to pay out the benefit on her policy."

Progressive understands Flo is now a liability, at least temporarily, though the company was way too slow to replace her avatar with the corporate logo on its main Twitter account — leaving Flo to smile maddeningly as she robo-spammed canned responses at people who had read Fisher's story and were horrified.

The article also linked to a statement from Chris Wolf, the claims general manager for Progressive, who points the finger at Nationwide for representing the defendant.

To be very clear, Progressive did not serve as the attorney for the defendant in this case. He was defended by his insurance company, Nationwide.

There was a question as to who was at fault, and a jury decided in the Fisher family’s favor just last week. We respect the verdict and now can continue to work with the Fisher family to reach a resolution.

Flo Suddenly a Problem for Progressive in Its Social-Media Crisis