FINlos reviews…

…Geico commercials

Apr 17

FINlosfilm/movie/tv, pop culture cavemen, commercials, daily life, geico, pop culture, tv 3 Comments

Television is a wasteland, cliche but true. It’s bad enough that I lose any of my time watching it, and even worse that the few things I am interested in are so frequently interrupted by people trying to sell me things. In general, I am a cynic when it comes to people selling me things. I am customarily not going to believe what you say. I am going to assume that you are just looking to make a buck. And while this remains true of Geico, they are indeed trying to sell me car insurance, they at least attempt to do it with humor and cleverness. And in my book, a little cleverness goes a long way.

Now, not all of them are great. I am going to try to focus on the best of the bunch here, but it is important that even the best salespeople stumble sometimes.

At the bottom of the heap are the commercials with the guys and all their toys and the blah blah blah. don’t care about what crap I don’t have and therefore don’t need to insure.

Only slightly better are the Mike Wallace Cousin commercials with the little kid with a toothpick in his mouth saying “I’m gonna put him in the wall.” again more targeted advertising, in this case I will assume they are aiming for NASCAR fans and 10 year olds. I am neither so I will move on. But at least that kid has spunk.

Next up the chart is the Geico Gecko series. Now, this is a tricky one. Because all this is is a salesperson dressed up like a cute lizard. Sure, he has an accent, sure he is being “interviewed” in such a way that it almost feels like you are not watching a commercial. But do not let that litter bugger fool you. He’s a salesperson in amphibean’s clothing. Again, Geico shows that creativity can go a lot way.

The runner up for best Geico commercial series is the cavemen one. Now, this one was so good that it even became a (failed) sitcom. What these commercials did right, and why it is so dangerous, is that they created characters that would not directly talk about Geico and instead only mention it in passing as they dealt mini stories within the commercial. It definitely borders on subliminal. All the credit should go to the actors in the caveman makeup. They actually make a viewer sympathize with the plight of the exploited caveman. This is definitely targeted more towards me, especially with Roysopp playing in the background. How much more white, well educated, middle class can you get than a caveman walking through an airport that is insulted by the blatant abuse of a caveman image all the while soothing Norwegian electronic music hums away. And what really seals the deal is that Geico makes fun of the fact that the Cavemen show got canceled by talking about it in the commercials.

But finally is the greatest of the Geico series. Here’s the pitch: Get a bunch of celebrity had beens or obscurities and stand them next to people who are “Geico customers.” The result is nothing but win. I mean, it’s not that the celebrities just sit there like celebrities tend to do. No, they embrace their absurdity and unabashedly turn themselves into jokes. And that’s the Genius, the joke is on us! Because while they are selling me car insurance I just don’t care because I am too busy choking on the dinner I just inhaled through laughter. I mean, Little Richard, Don LaFontaine, Michael Winslow, Joan Rivers, Peter Frampton, James Lipton, and the Pips? Who is not targeted by comic genius? IT’S THE PIPS SAYING WOO WOO!

What separates Geico from other people trying to sell you crap is that they find something that works, and then they keep the ball rolling. They don’t settle for doing one thing well. They do several, and then fill them out into whole series of dangerously amusing distractions.

Rated three stars for making (some) commercial breaks bearable. Not rated higher since some of them are lame, and lets be honest, these are commercials we are talking about here. But not rated lower either since the Pips take me on a train to happy town, WOO WOO!