Centraal Beheer
Encyclopedia
Centraal Beheer is an insurance company sited in Apeldoorn
, Netherlands
. It is part of Achmea
, the largest insurance company in the country. It is usually referred to as "Apeldoorn".
-like fashion to mean something like "oops" or "D'oh", and it is for this reason that the company is generally referred to with the metonym
"Apeldoorn" rather than its proper name. On the international versions of the commercials, the catchphrase is "Just call us".
For instance - a nervous man is offered a place in a secure witness protection program if he will testify against a mafia
leader. He accepts and testifies. Then he packs his bags and drives off to an idyllic, friendly town in the middle of nowhere. Unpacking and settling in, he breathes easily once more. Then the doorbell rings. He opens the door to find the mayor and town officials giving him an official welcome as the 100,000th inhabitant of their village, accompanied with dozens of journalists and film crews. Fade.
One of their most famous commercials involved the Garden of Eden with Eve walking around exploring. She encounters parrots, wild flowers, and exotic scenes that may have been in the garden. Then she discovers a waterfall in a hidden away sanctuary. Just then, Adam, who is told to be her companion in the Bible appears from the bushes. The two stare at each other with lust as they are both naked, but covered with a single leaf. Just as they are about to possibly kiss, Adam says in a high pitched voice, "Hi! I'm Adam." This makes the viewer assume that he is gay, as Eve immediately loses her attraction towards him. The message is that Centraal Beheer will be there for the customer even when things don't go as planned. The commercial can be found on YouTube.
Many of their commercials have won the Gouden Loeki, the so-called Academy Award for Dutch commercials.
Apeldoorn
Apeldoorn is a municipality and city in the province of Gelderland, about 60 miles south east of Amsterdam, in the centre of the Netherlands. It is a regional centre and has 155,000 . The municipality of Apeldoorn, including villages like Beekbergen, Loenen and Hoenderloo, has over 155,000...
, Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
. It is part of Achmea
Achmea
Achmea Holding NV is one of the largest suppliers of financial services in the Netherlands. The company is a result of a merger between Zilveren Kruis and Avéro Centraal Beheer Groep on January 1, 1995....
, the largest insurance company in the country. It is usually referred to as "Apeldoorn".
Commercials
Centraal Beheer is famous for its campaign of TV commercials that has lasted for over fifteen years now. These are short humoristic spots, generally without dialogue, in which something goes horrendously wrong, followed by the catchphrase "Even Apeldoorn bellen" ("Just call Apeldoorn"). This phrase is sometimes used as a general saying, in memeMeme
A meme is "an idea, behaviour or style that spreads from person to person within a culture."A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols or practices, which can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals or other imitable phenomena...
-like fashion to mean something like "oops" or "D'oh", and it is for this reason that the company is generally referred to with the metonym
Metonymy
Metonymy is a figure of speech used in rhetoric in which a thing or concept is not called by its own name, but by the name of something intimately associated with that thing or concept...
"Apeldoorn" rather than its proper name. On the international versions of the commercials, the catchphrase is "Just call us".
For instance - a nervous man is offered a place in a secure witness protection program if he will testify against a mafia
Mafia
The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...
leader. He accepts and testifies. Then he packs his bags and drives off to an idyllic, friendly town in the middle of nowhere. Unpacking and settling in, he breathes easily once more. Then the doorbell rings. He opens the door to find the mayor and town officials giving him an official welcome as the 100,000th inhabitant of their village, accompanied with dozens of journalists and film crews. Fade.
One of their most famous commercials involved the Garden of Eden with Eve walking around exploring. She encounters parrots, wild flowers, and exotic scenes that may have been in the garden. Then she discovers a waterfall in a hidden away sanctuary. Just then, Adam, who is told to be her companion in the Bible appears from the bushes. The two stare at each other with lust as they are both naked, but covered with a single leaf. Just as they are about to possibly kiss, Adam says in a high pitched voice, "Hi! I'm Adam." This makes the viewer assume that he is gay, as Eve immediately loses her attraction towards him. The message is that Centraal Beheer will be there for the customer even when things don't go as planned. The commercial can be found on YouTube.
Many of their commercials have won the Gouden Loeki, the so-called Academy Award for Dutch commercials.