The Geico Cavemen failed in their hopes of becoming TV stars, as ABC called off a series based on their adventures last fall. But the story of these misunderstood characters lives on in a pair of 30-second broadcast spots for Geico, via The Martin Agency, breaking this week.
In one TV spot, "Plane Banner," a caveman and his girlfriend—played by model and one-time Lindsay Lohan pal Lauren Hastings—plop down their umbrella and blankets on a secluded beach. "Boy, I really needed this," the caveman says as he prepares to sprawl out. Then a small plane flies over the beach with a trailing banner featuring the famous Geico ad with copy: "Saving hundreds so easy . . ." The copy alludes to older ads, which state that saving on insurance with Geico is so easy that a caveman could do it. The caveman looks disconsolately at the banner and says, "I'll be in the car."
Another spot features former tennis star Billie Jean King at a tournament in which her foe is a caveman. After a round, the two report to their respective chairs and the caveman says, "I can't believe I'm beating Billie Jean King." "You're not beating me," King replies. "In fact, you haven't even got a serve in." "You might want to take a gander at the scoreboard," the caveman says. Both look at the board, which shows he has yet to score a point. The caveman looks around the arena and realizes Geico is sponsoring the entire event. "I get it," he says with a smile to contain his anger, as he gets up to leave the court. "I quit, but I get it."
"With this new round of cavemen work, we were really trying to stick to the same formula that worked so well in the past: Geico, intentionally or not, dinging cavemen," Todd Brusnighan, senior copywriter at The Martin Agency, Richmond, Va., said in a statement. "We wanted to remind viewers that our cavemen are still out there and their struggles are still very much happening everyday."
There is no Web element to the new campaign, but a Martin Agency rep said the ads "will be on every television network and every cable network" for the next 21 months. The spots will also run during the Olympics. Some reports have said that two more cavemen ads are in production and will be released shortly, but the agency's rep declined to comment on the reports.
Geico's cavemen ads began running in 2004 and have gained pop icon status over the years. Geico spent $600 million on U.S. ads last year (excluding online) and $240 million through May, per Nielsen Monitor-Plus.
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