GEICO Cavemen

The GEICO Cavemen are characters and are trademarks of GEICO in a series of well-received television advertisements for the auto insurance company GEICO, that have aired from 2004 to present. The campaign was created by Joe Lawson of The Martin Agency. In 2004, GEICO began an advertising campaign featuring Neanderthal-like cavemen in a modern setting. The premise of the commercials is that GEICO advertises that using their website is "so easy, a caveman could do it"; and that this slogan offends several cavemen, who not only still exist in modern society but live as intelligent, urbane bachelors. Jeff Daniel Phillips and Ben Weber played the two earliest cavemen and continuously reprise their roles. Actor John Lehr appears most frequently as the caveman. A fourth caveman is played by Ben Wilson.

In an online interview with Esquire Magazine, Joe Lawson said that one aspect of the ads is a critique of today's Politically Correct society.

Television ads

• In the first commercial, as the fake, caveman-insensitive commercial is being filmed, the boom operator turns out to be a Neanderthal caveman, who stops the filming and yells "not cool!". A series of commercials followed.
• In the second commercial, two cavemen in their apartment are watching the ad on TV and take offense at its "condescending" tone, as it makes cavemen seem less intelligent.
• In the third, a spokesman attempts to apologize to two cavemen in a restaurant for the promotion, explaining that "we had no idea you guys were still around". Soon afterward, in a well-quoted line, one of the cavemen tells the waiter, "I'll have the roast duck with the mango salsa". (Writer Ron Rosenbaum called this line "the iconic moment" of the ad series, due to "the surreal contradictions" of cavemen "au courant enough to be unimpressed by now antiquated nouvelle cuisine.")
• In the fourth, a caveman is on a moving sidewalk at an airport. He spots a billboard for GEICO featuring an overly silly representation of a caveman along with the insulting phrase the cavemen premiered as the Röyksopp song "Remind Me" plays in the background.
  • A follow up to the fourth commercial shows the same caveman talking on his cellular phone, complaining about the offending billboard saying "I'm looking right at it!".
• The fifth shows a caveman complaining to his therapist (played by Talia Shire) about Geico's attitude towards cavemen during a psychotherapy session.
• The sixth shows a caveman on a news-type talk show, debating with a human "expert" about whether or not cavemen "have failed to adapt." The expert just insults the poor caveman.
• The seventh shows all three cavemen at a high-rise-apartment party, where two are having a discussion on the balcony about one's decision to purchase Geico's insurance because of its low price. The second caveman doesn't entirely fault him, however states that "a little loyalty would be nice" in their opposition to the company. During their discussion, the third caveman interrupts from inside, exclaiming excitedly "Tina's here; we're getting back together!" The first caveman quickly snaps at him exclaiming, "Hey! Give us a minute!"
• The eighth is a continuation on of the news talk-show where the "expert" just banters and the caveman is confused.
• The ninth and tenth are continuations of the caveman psychotherapy sessions.
• The 11th shows them watching the television show (this ad premiered during Super Bowl XLII) and ridiculing the series. (The show itself had been cancelled some while earlier.)
• The 12th and thirteenth feature a caveman dancing in various styles in a rather ridiculous manner and remarking how hard it is to dance in such a style, exclaiming phrases such as, "Geico probably thinks this is easy, too!"
• The 14th add focuses on GEICO's sports marketing efforts with a Caveman facing Billie Jean King in a tennis match. The caveman, who is losing 0-6, 0-6, 0-5, quits when he discovers the tournament is sponsored by GEICO.
• The 15th finds a caveman and his girl friend alone on a beach. As the lady begins to remove her shirt, a plane flies by pulling a GEICO banner. The caveman states "I'll be in the car."
• The 16th shows two cavemen riding up to a sort of outdoor bar on motorcycles where they see two typically beautiful girls who are clearly impressed by the two bikers. They notice the same billboard from the fourth commercial and suddenly no longer have any interest in the woman, who seem to be confused by their sudden change in demeanor.

Also, at the time of the launch of the Caveman's Crib website, a short advertisement featuring all cavemen at the "hip party" featured on the website was added after every Caveman commercial that was currently airing.

Websites

In 2007, GEICO created and launched an interactive Flash website starring the GEICO commercial cavemen entitled Caveman's Crib. What started out as a single microsite inviting users to a hip penthouse party at the caveman's apartment has grown into an online GEICO Caveman entertainment portal, with multiple unique web entertainment experiences. The original site Host With the Most invites users into an immersive, interactive world where the cavemen are preparing for a party and you are the first arriving guest of a nonplussed host. Users may interact with the GEICO cavemen as well as their clothing, electronics, books, magazines and appliances. Party Out of Bounds invites users to the interactive aftermath of the raucous party. Embeddable video on three camera phones in the site tell the story of the party from three unique points of view and have been linked throughout myspace and youtube. Eyes Wide What?! invites users to a costume party with a decidedly pretentious Venetian Masque theme. This site opens rooms to the crib that give clues to the backstory of several of the cavemen as well as 8mm film footage from their childhood. iHeartcavemen builds on a Linked Magazine article from "Host with the Most" and delivers an online dating experience for "cavemen and the women who love them." This site allows users to interact with the cavemen, see online dating profiles of the cavemen and their women, and some of their dates. This site also offers users the opportunity to morph themselves into cavemen and see their cave baby offspring. The Caveman's Crib sites have won several industry awards, including the W3 "Best in Show" and the Platinum Hermes Award. GEICO's latest addition to their Caveman's Crib franchise is a download site Dancing Caveman.

Television sitcom spin-off

Main article: Cavemen (TV series)

On March 2, 2007, Variety reported that a sitcom based on the cavemen characters, simply titled Cavemen, was being developed for ABC. The magazine reported, "'Cavemen' will revolve around three pre-historic men who must battle prejudice as they attempt to live as normal thirtysomethings in modern Atlanta." ABC announced this series for their fall schedule in May 2007. Originally it featured none of the Cavemen from the commercials, but Jeff Daniel Phillips later agreed to join the cast. It premiered on October 2, 2007. In the face of sagging ratings, it was quietly cancelled, automatically being the shortest lived ABC sitcom of the season. In February 2008, a new series of Caveman commercials featured two of the characters spoofing the premise of the show.

Other appearances

• The cavemen appeared in a short film shown in movie theaters singing, Rat Pack-style, the standard "Everything Happens to Me." It appears that this is part of the website http://cavemanscrib.com . This short film was nominated for The One Show advertising award competition.
• One of the cavemen appeared in the Super Bowl XLI pre-game show playing golf with Phil Simms, exchanging witty banter and deliberately sabotaging Simms's golf swings.
• A viral video of a supposed Caveman movie has made the rounds on the internet. It appears to be made up of unused clips from the GEICO ads and stock footage.
• One of the cavemen made several appearances on the sports cable network SportsNet New York in 2007, including promos for the show GEICO SportsNite, as well as a New York Mets baseball game.
• "Marty" the caveman made a stop at SXSW Interactive in Austin, TX on March 10th, 2008 for the iHeartCavemen.com launch party
• One of the cavemen appeared in a History Channel commercial, as a museum docent discussing a Cro-Magnon display. The museum-goers ridicule the caveman, but he eventually shames them into respecting him as a person. One female goer, however, is impressed by the caveman's knowledge and standing up for himself, garnering him a potential girlfriend.
• A Caveman was in an ESPN Fantasy Football commercial where he is playing golf and bragging about his past teams. He says that he will use the same strategy and not "reinvent the wheel". He then proceeds to muff the ball on his swing.

External links

• Caveman's Crib - a portal to several immersive world micro sites that get users up close and personal with the backstories of the cavemen (operated by Geico)
• Geico Cavemen Fan Site - unofficial site
• Advertising Industry critiques Caveman's Crib
• Geico Caveman Ads reviewed
• Unofficial Geico Cavemen FAQ and Definitive Video Post
• Jeffrey Daniel Phillips at IMDb Trivia - Portrays one of the Cavemen in the Geico Insurance Commercials
• Ben Weber at IMDb Trivia - Portrays one of the "Cavemen" in the Geico Insurance Commercials
• Online website for the tools/artifacts prehistoric caveman used