Geico: Defending the Caveman
Brand: Geico
Execution: TV
Target: Insurance policy holders
Rating: ****
Reviewer: Bob Bader
Description:
In this execution of the “Caveman” campaign, the angry caveman is “in session” with his therapist, who asks the caveman why the “so easy a caveman can do it” Geico tagline is offensive to cavemen. “It’s just a commercial,” she says. The caveman ends up exposing the therapists underlying racist (species-ist?) attitude. The spot ends with a joke about putting Caveman mom on speaker phone.
The caveman campaign is running concurrently with two other Geico campaigns, the celebrated Gekko ads, as well as the Celebrity campaign. The three campaigns all focus against Geico’s core brand promise of convenient savings.
What Works:
This Caveman Therapist spot fits well within the successful Geico advertising formula. First, by stressing the simplicity of applying with Geico, it addresses one switching cost that could dissuade consumers from initiating the evaluation process. Second, the spot contains the necessary irreverent, humorous elements common to all their ads. Geico’s skill is to consistently hit the right levity note. Too much frivolity or slapstick won’t work: nobody wants to buy their insurance from the Budweiser lizards or Phil Hartman’s Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer. (As proof, save for a Gekko or two, Geico’s website is indistinguishable from those of its competitors.) The Therapist spot, with its mainstream cleverness and use of political correctness as a safe foil, lands within the appropriate whimsical zone.
The Caveman spot also continues Geico’s practice of satirizing the disingenuous, be it ad icons, celebrity spokesmen, actors portraying “real” people, or insincere psychoanalysts. Of course, Geico’s real target is the unnecessary insurance middleman. “Insurance is insurance. By going direct, we can save you money, fast, so let’s dispense with the gravitas and get talking.” This approach lends the brand a common-sense, straight-talking, independent persona. Viewed from this angle, the therapist is a stand-in for traditional insurers, who believe they’re smarter than the average consumer - until exposed by the rational, grounded, caveman: i.e., the Geico customer.
What Doesn’t Work:
The Caveman Therapist supports Geico’s advertising strategy and brand positioning. However, there is one future watch-out. To minimize consumer tune-out to a saturation level of message bombardment, Geico is running several campaigns concurrently. This strategy also allows them to calibrate the campaigns against selected consumer targets. The challenge inherent with this approach – increased here due to the use of multiple satirical executions - is to ensure that the medley of messages harmoniously support the brand proposition, and not diverge into competing, confusing claims.
To date, the sum of the Geico ad parts has exceeded the whole. Cavemen therapy may represent the outer limits, beyond which the comedic setup, against a backdrop of other brand claims, becomes less impactful.
Branding Bottom Line:
Most challenging therapy client since Tony Soprano keeps Geico rolling along.
January 22nd, 2007 at 3:51 am
These GEICO caveman commercials are totally anti-semitic and awful in the way they portray White Anglo Saxon Protestants as somehow superior to the obviously neurotic and whiny Jewish caveman character.
Utterly offensive.
February 15th, 2007 at 11:01 am
This Just In: The Gieco Caveman has just announced that HE is “regretably the true and actual father of Anna Nicole Smiths baby”. He aslo stated that “it all stems from a hard case of late night beer goggles…albeit he will step up to the plate and take full responsibility…and see to it that the baby is rased with the utmost love, respect and sound guidance”. When asked how he “pulled IT off?”…he replied…”it was so easy”. More on this tonight at 11:00.
March 5th, 2007 at 7:18 pm
I have submitted a commerical idea for the cavemen titled “5 on 5′ pick-up basketball.
Have you recieved this screen play?
Overview…
5 on 5 indoor pick-up basketball
Home team: 2 cavemen 3 regular humans
visitors: 5 regular humans
1st scene, visitors get rebound go down court for fast break and score.
home team brings ball to half court play. 1st caveman passes ball to 2nd caveman for an open jump shot.
On the sideline a white man wearing a bright yellow T-shirt with GIECO across the front yells out “shoot the rock”
caveman slams down ball walks off court in disgust.
this is for sale
contact me soon!
jack stegall
727-239-9458
May 16th, 2007 at 11:45 am
The Gieco campaings appear to lack continuity. When the commercials appear, it is never known until the end that it is in fact a Gieco ad. For once, it works! It feels like a practical joke being played on the viewer. I have heard people talk about the Gieco ads almost like episodes of their favourite TV shows; “… did you see the one with the home renovation guy?” or “… did you see the one with lizard on the phone?” In the end, the ads are enjoyable and get you. They take a different approach from showing an elderly person in a car and what their guaranteed rates are. Well done!
June 3rd, 2007 at 7:56 pm
I had Geico report me to the DMV as not having incurance when in fact I did…. simply because I did not purchase their insurance! I don’t care what they use to advertise they should be held accountable for their actions!
July 13th, 2007 at 9:09 pm
P.R. folks. I would like to create a cavewoman commercial! Interested? Please reply, Thanks, Teri
August 17th, 2007 at 12:27 pm
You are absolutely correct about the attempt by GEICO to make this about the middleman. Unfortunately the public will eventually learn that this is a scam of false advertising, as their costs are equivalent to independent agents ( middleman).
Credibility is important too and this will come back to haunt them. Wait tiil they figure out they get a higher rate if they have a blue collar job!
Not counting they are listed on the internet as a bad faith insurer! Great Company! NOT!
August 23rd, 2007 at 2:01 pm
Regarding the GEICO cavemen commercials: I think it’s great that Italians (I am Italian myself) are such good sports about these commercials because they are obviously about whiney Italians complaining about their image from shows like THE SOPRANOS. As an Italian, I find the commercials extremely funny and my Italian friends and family feel the same. The hairyness (an Italian feature) and the sensitivity of the cavemen (another Italian feature) should make it obvious who they are making fun of.
July 6th, 2008 at 4:23 pm
Hey J.S,
………Thats BULL! Its about no one …and everyone…and much adieu about …really nothing.
yeah!
September 25th, 2008 at 11:55 am
This caveman crap stinks to high heaven. If I needed insurance this horse manure is all it would take to send me packing from Geico. I can’t believe you spent money for this S–t…
October 1st, 2008 at 3:42 pm
I am shocked to find so many people who don’t like these ads. Very few ads have enough in them to get me to look them up on You Tube. The Holiday Inn guys and the Geico cavemen are about it.
I think part of the success, in my opinion, comes from the harsh reality of the subject they address. The undercurrent of racial inequality taps into something I don’t think most marketers would ever take on.
It reminds me of my upbringing in Ohio. I grew up all my life hearing “black jokes” and “Pollack jokes.” I am neither, but many of friends who were Polish or Black used to get a kick out of hearing them and sharing their own. I used to laugh at the Irish jokes they heard from their family or friends. The subject of race, so ubiquitous, was cause for laughter. This ad, unlike any other I know of, reaches that place of knowing/unknowing that makes us all uncomfortable. Living in the upper Midwest (North Dakota) I find people don’t understand that distinction. That, jokes about race, when done satirically, reduce the power of the joke to hurt. I really wish more people understood this.