Tonight, ABC premiered a new sitcom—Cavemen a show based on the almost-funny Geico commercials where a caveman talks on his cell phone and whines to his shrink about the phrase, “So easy a caveman can do it.” No, I did not watch said show. I was busy getting stuck in an elevator with about four other Crucial Minutiaeteers. I didn’t DVR it either, because a) sitcoms and I generally do not get along and b) I always preferred the Geico Gecko commercials anyway. But I find it fascinating that an actual television show picked up by a major television network is based on a commercial. In fact, I would go as far as to call it an advertising coup. It’s on par with the 1988 release of Mac and Me, an alien buddy movie that’s pretty clearly a two-hour ad for McDonald’s.
Geico is a company that has mastered advertising. While most commercials make me want to throw my television against the wall, Geico continually pumps out ads that are funny. I have to admit, I get a little bit excited when their most recent commercial airs—a Hard Copy-like look at how Wilma Flintstone could afford her signature pearls (answer: Fred saved a lot on car insurance).
The Geico ad machine began back in 1999 when the company hired the Martin Agency. They proposed a commercial about a gecko whose name is confused with the word ‘Geico.’ (Bizarre trivia: the original voice of the Geico Gecko was Kelsey Grammar.) The ad was supposed to be a one-time thing, but since a Screen Actors Guild strike swung into full gear, they used the gimmick longer than expected. Next came the series where a baseball player, racecar driver, etc would deliver terrible news, and then add, “But I just saved a bunch on my car insurance by switching to Geico.” Next came, Little Richard and Vern Troyer. And then, the cavemen.
In 2006, Geico spent an estimated $483 million dollars on advertising. To put that into perspective, Coke spent $326 million. Geico’s balls-out approach has pushed Allstate, State Farm, Progressive, etc to up their advertising game. According to an article about the phenomenon in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, a Geico exec said that the advertising juggernaut will continue, “as long as I am willing to write the checks. And I love writing them.”
So what can other companies learn from Geico? That ads don’t have to be loud and obnoxious. That a little humor takes you a long way—perhaps even to a half-hour long ad on primetime television each week that you don’t have to pay for.
All this said, it’s not enough to make me give Cavemen a chance. Here’s what I’ll be watching this month, instead.
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You Can’t Make This Stuff Up is a weekly column by Kate Torgovnick.
Someone recently told me that all TV programming is a vehicle for advertising, pure and simple, and anyone who thinks differently is sorely mistaken. They were telling me about a production company that develops shows for big corporations, kind of like product placements in movies. Do you agree with that?
Such an interesting point, and I do agree with it. Honestly, I think it’s true for most media we know. I definitely had a realization a year or two ago that as a magazine writer, my job is to basically create billboard space—content to draw people in so that they’ll see the ads, which is how magazines make like 95 percent of their money. The same is kind of true for television—on the most base level shows are the space between advertisements. But that’s kind of a depressing view and there is more to it than that—we’re also here to entertain and inform and all that jazz.
“Cavemen” is the latest in the ever declining wasteland of television. It’s so bad the Washington Post, hardly a braintrust, is poking fun at it with an absurd list of commercial to TV show spin-offs.
[...] hear the word “Geico” I immediately think of the Geico Caveman commercials. It’s been reported that Geico spent more than $483MM on their advertising budget for the gecko and caveman spots in 2007. They [...]