Commentary

Branded: Bedrock Revisited

So easy a caveman can do it? It's fitting that the "endangered" 30-second commercial - the tyrannosaurus rex of the ad biz according to all of those self-proclaimed "futurists" - has been resuscitated by a Geico campaign starring cavemen.

Those droll spots, where our furry, angst-ridden, knuckle-dragging protagonist gets browbeaten by everyone from his shrink to cable shriekfest babbleheads - even his fellow cave-dwellers pile on - have emerged as the top TiVo-busters on the airwaves today. The campaign has connected on such a mass level that ABC is on the brink of turning the Geico caveman into a TV star.

Nobody's skipping these spots. In fact, TiVo would be well-served to merchandise Geico's breakout ads by packaging them as a branded entertainment on-demand showcase - if that isn't in the works already. Yes, these spots both sell and entertain - an all-too novel commodity these days.

I'm not privy to the ROI on this work, but I'd predict that Geico's "soft" metrics - like recall, engagement and purchase consideration - must be through-the-roof.

The best thing about this campaign, and why Joe Lawson and the rest of the creative team at The Martin Agency deserves every last pat on the back, is that this work isn't one of those cynically elitist attempts to just curry favor with the Clio and Cannes cognoscenti. The campaign is strategically offbeat and is actually geared primarily towards selling online car insurance and not in padding creative directors' award portfolios. The Richmond, Va.-based shop is apparently more concerned about pleasing Warren Buffett - whose Berkshire Hathaway owns Geico - than they are their agency peers.

How refreshing. It just proves that despite all of the great benefits accrued to brands for making star turns in "The Apprentice" and on "Oprah," it's hard to refute the argument that the 30-second commercial - if well-executed - is tough to beat as the gold standard for branding communications.

Lest we forget in this age of platform proliferation, commercial pods are a completely controlled environment, with clients not at the whim of network TV show runners. And with the overwhelming majority of the commercial work churned out by Madison Avenue charitably described as bland and mediocre, a good campaign will always get noticed.

The Geico caveman spots - overshadowing the talking gecko spots, as well as appearances from Little Richard and Verne "Mini-me" Troyer - have viralled out beyond our incestuous little echo chamber and even drawn the attention of ABC programming czar Steve McPherson. He made news in March when he greenlit a sitcom pilot starring the Geico caveman in hopes that it could be a part of his strategy to rejuvenate his primetime comedy line-up.

The show's storylines will reportedly focus on a trio of 30-something cavemen fighting discrimination in Atlanta.

Say what?

I hope I'm wrong about this, but what in the name of Baby Bob are they thinking? Call me glass is half-empty, but the last time some network exec decided that a 30-second commercial could be repurposed as a 30-minute primetime TV show, was back when CBS rolled out the short-lived sitcom disaster starring the talking toddler of NetZero fame.

While the Baby Bob spots were nowhere in the league of the Cavemen commercials, I have grave doubts this premise contains enough comic gold to be mined for 22 minutes over 13 to 22 episodes. Thirty seconds is the optimal canvas for this quirky allegory of the growing obsolescence of simplicity in a complicated, modern world.

Any chance we could scrap the sitcom idea for, say, a series of five-minute Webisodes? Or have the caveman play another round of golf with Phil Simms, or somebody a little more exciting even? Because this experiment with a TV show leaves Geico open to the possibility of doing serious harm to its currently sublime brand name.

On the eve of the network upfronts, my fear is of walking into the ABC presentation to see Steve McPherson showing us a lame clip of our beloved Neanderthals failing to match the comedic genius of the commercials.

Speaking of lame developments, with many of the cable networks opting for less sizzle and more steak as they present us with their 2007-08 schedules, I'm looking forward to the broadcast nets' dog-and-pony shows with even more relish than usual.

Rubber chicken and cheap martinis will never taste so good.

Hank Kim is director at MPG Entertainment. (hank.kim@mpg.com)

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