Found a guy Ron Rosenbaum who is way ahead of me analyzing the caveman. Says the caveman is "perhaps the most enigmatic character on tv now. " Rosenbaum has attracted 70-plus comments to his online article about why he thinks the therapist commercial takes the caveman in the wrong direction: http://ronrosenbaum.pajamasmedia.com/2007/01/26/the_geico_caveman_finally_jump.php
Here's a quote from Rosenbaum:
But I may be the first I’ve seen to say that—with the new “therapist” ad—the Caveman campaign has “jumped the shark” (I know saying something has “jumped the shark”—made a telling failed leap for innovation that betrays its lost freshness— has itself jumped the shark).
But here’s my theory about why the “therapist” ad jumped the shark:I think we like the mystique of the cavemen, the ridiculous premise carried to absurdly realistic lengths. That’s why the banality of the squash racket carrying airport ad was important. It’s triviality highlighted the exquisite silliness of the whole thing.
But the therapist ad suddenly reduces the provocative absurdity, the mystery of it all to tired Woody Allen schtick. The caveman is whining to his therapist about why the Geico caveman slogan bothers him so much.
Then his cell phone rings. “It’s my mother, I’ll put her on speaker”, he says. Sorry, it just doesn’t cut it. It’s more Seinfeld than Kafka.
It’s not too late to save the caveman series, but I think it’s time for a strategy session at the ad agency."
But here’s my theory about why the “therapist” ad jumped the shark:I think we like the mystique of the cavemen, the ridiculous premise carried to absurdly realistic lengths. That’s why the banality of the squash racket carrying airport ad was important. It’s triviality highlighted the exquisite silliness of the whole thing.
But the therapist ad suddenly reduces the provocative absurdity, the mystery of it all to tired Woody Allen schtick. The caveman is whining to his therapist about why the Geico caveman slogan bothers him so much.
Then his cell phone rings. “It’s my mother, I’ll put her on speaker”, he says. Sorry, it just doesn’t cut it. It’s more Seinfeld than Kafka.
It’s not too late to save the caveman series, but I think it’s time for a strategy session at the ad agency."
Hmmmmmmmm.
Here's what someone commented on Rosenbaum's site:
Here's what someone commented on Rosenbaum's site:
"The ads come out of the Martin Agency here in beautiful Richmond, VA. As a result, the whole GEICO campaign is frequently discussed in the local media, and I think I've read that the caveman series is meant to end after just one more ad.
In one interview, one of the creative guys behind the series said something like, "Intead of being frozen in some distant, prehistoric past, they're stuck in 1986." (I loved that.)"
In one interview, one of the creative guys behind the series said something like, "Intead of being frozen in some distant, prehistoric past, they're stuck in 1986." (I loved that.)"
And another:
You passed over a detail that I have always found amusing, and that's the contrast in clothing between the two "cavemen".
The "Roast Duck" guy is dressed like an Italian lounge lizard grabbing a poolside lunch on St. Tropez: $400 D&G sunglasses perched precisely so on top of his head, and wearing a one button white Gucci blazer with possibly an extra button undone, and is just slightly slouched in his chair in a delightfully Euro-trash sore of way.
Of course he finds the "so-1998" cuisine beneath him - he finds a good deal of the world bourgeois anyway.
The other guy is wearing a JC Penney short sleeved white shirt. He'so unstylish it doesn't even register. He's a geek.
The other fascinating aspect of all of this - to me, anyway - is that while the lounge lizard delivers the iconic line, one which has permeated the culture to an unbelieveable degree, he is not the character who GEICO uses to carry the campaign forward.
This is the first and only time we see him."
I added a comment that the caveman has turned into Borat by the time we get to therapist commercial; he's doing his schtick for our benefit -- the therapist is the straight guy/rube.
The "Roast Duck" guy is dressed like an Italian lounge lizard grabbing a poolside lunch on St. Tropez: $400 D&G sunglasses perched precisely so on top of his head, and wearing a one button white Gucci blazer with possibly an extra button undone, and is just slightly slouched in his chair in a delightfully Euro-trash sore of way.
Of course he finds the "so-1998" cuisine beneath him - he finds a good deal of the world bourgeois anyway.
The other guy is wearing a JC Penney short sleeved white shirt. He'so unstylish it doesn't even register. He's a geek.
The other fascinating aspect of all of this - to me, anyway - is that while the lounge lizard delivers the iconic line, one which has permeated the culture to an unbelieveable degree, he is not the character who GEICO uses to carry the campaign forward.
This is the first and only time we see him."
I added a comment that the caveman has turned into Borat by the time we get to therapist commercial; he's doing his schtick for our benefit -- the therapist is the straight guy/rube.
(Photo is Rte. 9 mannequin by Tom Devine.)
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