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Nodding dogs, elephants, sea captains and meerkats: insurance advertising has more than its fair share of characters designed to imprint themselves indelibly on our minds.

In a low-interest category, where top-of-mind awareness is critical, a brand icon or jingle - or preferably both - appear to be must-have ingredients for advertising success.

At best, these devices charm themselves into our brains; at worst, they shout louder and louder until they can't be ignored, like infuriating melodies from bad pop songs.

It is, therefore, refreshing to see Direct Line create a campaign that appears to work in a very different way and, dare I say it, seems to engage on a slightly more emotional level. Yes, the red phone is still there, but it plays only a cameo role in the end frame. Before the familiar and relentlessly cheery jingle, there are 25 seconds of a nicely written, well-performed sketch featuring a bemused insurance salesman and a mildly comedic, Basil Fawlty-esque customer, who thinks he can do a better job than the salesman at selling insurance.

Like all good campaigns there is a strong truth at its heart: customers are becoming more wise to the tricks of the marketing trade and consequently distrustful of offers that sound too good to be true.

In this case, the offer is a 'straightforward' 70% no-claims bonus. The know-it-all customer likes the offer, but is unimpressed with the salesman's pitch, so steps in to show how it should be done. In contrast to the latter's approach, he uses 'tricks' and 'gimmicks' of the marketing trade (which we assume is a gentle dig at the competition), in the process cleverly demonstrating how straightforward Direct Line really is.

The result is a creative device that works on several levels: it charms and engages, communicates the product benefit clearly and, most impressively, portrays the brand representative as the nice guy. He is honest, clear and reasonable - the antithesis of the stereotypical insurance salesman and, increasingly, of the price comparison sites that purport to help us find our way through the multitude of brands and offers available.

Executionally, the ad is smart, with lovely performances and plenty of product and brand-related cues to aid recall and branding.

It may not be the most glamorous campaign, but is well-thought-through and better crafted than many efforts in the insurance market. Even if it doesn't wow the creative awards judges, I hope it will earn the brand an effectiveness award and be the exception that proves the rule of how insurance advertising works.