Funny Video: Esurance TV Commercial – $522 Bucks (and other slang terms for money!)

Here’s another TV commercial I saw airing on American television while I’m home this Christmas.

Unlike the French, Americans like to talk about money so it’s no surprise we have a lot of slang and idiomatic terms for it!

http://www.esurance.com/Welcome/home/home/ErinsWorld.aspx

• THE SAVER: 522 bucks (= dollars. Derived from the word ‘buckskin.’ In colonial America, the English wanted fur and they traded goods with the Native Americans for buckskin.) -- that's what people save, on average, when they call me to switch to Esurance.
• FIRST GIRL: If they switch to Esurance online, they could save 522 clams (= dollars. Native Americans on the west coast of North America strung clamshells [des coquilles de palourde] into strings of money).
• THE SAVER: I could save 'em 522 smackers. (= dollars. Sometimes said ‘smackeroo.’ Dates back to the beginning of the 20th century and comes from the notion of something being ‘smacked’ into the palm of the hand; the sound made as the dollar is slapped into the hand.)
• FIRST GIRL:You talkin' dough? (= money. Bread is a necessity of life and we earn money to be able to buy it. Dough, pronounced ‘doh,’ is what bread is before it is baked. A breadwinner is the individual who earns the money to support a family.)
• THE SAVER: Bread. (see above note)
• FIRST GIRL: Benjamins? (= $100 banknote. Benjamin Franklin is on the $100 bill. Sometimes called in street talk as a ‘Benji’)
• THE SAVER: Scratch (= money. Dates to beginning of the 20th century though its origins are unknown. Probably from the term ‘to scratch/scrape a living’ which means to earn just enough money to live). Greenbacks (= dollar. Since the Civil War, the back of US banknotes were printed in green ink). Moolah (= money. The origins are a mystery. Some say it comes from the Fijian language others say it comes from the French word ‘le moulin’ since mills were a primary source of wealth.) . Cheddar. (= money. This is a street term for money used often in African-American slang and rap music. I’m guessing that cheddar cheese probably was at some point in history an expensive item to buy and came to represent wealth or riches.) Simoleons. (= dollar. US slang term that is probably a blend of the 18th century British six pence coin called a ‘simon’ and the French gold ‘Napoleon’ coins.) Don't try to out-save me.

• SECOND GIRL: He’s the Saver.
• FIRST GIRL: (SAID WITH FRUSTRATION) I know he’s the Saver.
• VOICEOVER : You could save 522 bucks. See for yourself at Esurance. Technology when you want it. People when you don’t.