Geico...Take 1

Bad Ad: Two cavemen buddies are enjoying a game of bowling. A caveman friend, with face downcast, enters the alley, and the two invite him to join them in the game. He is overjoyed. After several frames of a rollicking good time, they finally notice something printed on the pin resetting machinery at the far end of the lane. It says, "So easy a caveman could do it. Geico." Their night is shattered, and presumably they will leave the alley shortly thereafter in despair over how the world (or Geico, at least) thinks of them.

My Aditude: This is just one in a series of ads from Geico involving cavemen. The first one, maybe two, were mildly humorous. Those put out recently are sadder than the cavemen themselves.

Why are there apparently only two or three cavemen in the world? Why are there any at all? Haven't we supposedly evolved* into something better than that? If so, why are these guys still around?

I like bowling, but do these down-trodden cavemen have nothing better to do than go bowling? Why aren't they out creating a better reputation for themselves? Or.... Oh, wait. I just figured out why they're bowling by themselves. A couple of them ditched a pair of very nice young ladies in an earlier ad!

But the thing that really gives me a bad aditude here is that they don't notice the hurtful slogan down by the pins for several frames into the game. Did someone suddenly slap the decals onto the machinery halfway through the 6th frame? Were they having such a great time that they simply didn't notice it earlier? Or are they perhaps rather dull and deserving of the stereotype that Geico wants to pin on them?

Marketing failure: The intended audience includes insurable adults who like the National Football League (NFL). I don't think that group of people are swayed to turn to Geico because of this ad. They would more likely think that Geico is not up their alley.

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*I don't believe in evolution of the Darwinian type.