Geico Bowling: Brandon Toner

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_eBmaPmGOo

The commercial starts out with one caveman walking through a bowling alley, and he sees some of his friends. They invite him to come play with him, He bowls a strike, and then when the pinsetter comes down, it says “Geico, so easy a caveman can do it.” To “get” this commercial the viewer has to understand that cavemen aren't generally found in this era, or in bowling alleys. The viewer also has to understand the game play mechanics of bowling, and how the difficulty of getting a strike. The commercial starts by trying to give the reader something they can relate to, by showing the caveman getting invited to play with his friends, and having a good time. Then the commercial is trying to make the viewer feel better about themselves, by showing a caveman, who we assume to be stupid, doing something that is hard, we infer that because a stupid caveman can do it we can easily do it, too. The song in the background is talking about wanting to be yourself. This is trying to make us want to be an individual. We do not want to labeled as anything, we just want to be ourselves, and in the commercial, the caveman starts out feeling sad, and then he starts playing the game. He now feels like someone, not just a caveman, like he can do anything he wants. Then when the pinsetter comes down, and he reads the message, he remembers that to everyone else. He's just a caveman. The commercial is trying to make us not want to be like everyone else, to want to stand out and be our own person. People generally don't want to be sheep, and since most people don't use this company, they're trying to convince them that if they buy the product they wont be a sheep anymore, they will be their own person, and will stand out from everyone else.