In case you haven’t noticed lately, the online auto insurance company Esurance has drastically changed its marketing campaign. The highly recognizable, pink-haired, policy-promoting, animated spy Erin Esurance has been replaced in TV commercials with boring, real-life human beings.

Advertising industry insiders say Esurance executives decided to drop the leggy, sexy-cool agent as the face of the company in order to appeal to a broader audience than just Generation X males. They also cite the San Francisco-based company’s desire to not be known simply for its hot cartoon character.

That’s great for Esurance, but what about Erin? What will become of her? Will she just be discarded like an expired proof of insurance form after spending the last decade fighting monsters and robots, all in the name of establishing the Esurance brand?

Sadly, the answer seems to be “yes.”

“We’ve leveraged great brand equity in Erin over the years and she’s played a significant role in making us the third-most shopped auto insurance brand among online consumers,” admitted Gary Tolman, President and CEO of Esurance. “As Esurance continues to grow, we’re expanding our target customer base and want to show consumers that our company offers not only innovative technology, but also superior around-the-clock customer service.”

So just like Doctor Frankenstein, Esurance is abandoning its own creation and allowing Erin to fend for herself in a cruel world.

And a cruel world it is, as evidenced by the myriad X-rated iterations of Erin that are replete on the internet. If you don’t believe us, conduct a Google image search for her with the SafeSearch turned off … just not at work or in front of the kids. These versions created by “fans” are so prominent on the web, they outnumber the original, family-friendly Erin.

In fact, some advertising experts actually think this uncontrolled promulgation of Erin’s unauthorized adult-themed twins is the real impetus behind her sacking. They say Esurance no longer wanted a corporate spokesperson for whom online search results yield hundreds of sexually explicit pictures.

Of course, the folks at Esurance are quick to point out that they aren’t completely tossing her out the door. They insist she’ll still remain a low-key fixture as a sort of mascot or lucky charm for them, appearing on the company website and as an Easter egg or two in the live-action commercials.

We see this as purely a token gesture. There’s no way she can make a living as a “lucky charm,” but who’s going to hire her? She’s an animated spy who’s trained in shilling for an insurance company, for Christ’s sake! It’s not like she can become a real secret agent for the CIA. She’s too well-known.

Plus, she can surely forget about parlaying her fame into a legitimate form of entertainment, like a TV series. The Geico cavemen already proved America only loves its insurance company marketing campaign characters as long as they’re packaged in 30-second segments. Thirty-minute shows just don’t work.

Esurance’s decision has hurt not only Erin, but it’s left a void for her adoring fans. Countless young men who enjoy masturbating during auto insurance commercials will likely have to rely on Flo from Progressive to get them there. (We’re not even going to acknowledge the weirdos that get off on the Geico Gecko.)

And while Flo’s a decent-looking woman, she’s no Erin Esurance. Only the horniest of the horny can possibly finish during a half-minute viewing of Flo’s quirky antics.