caveman, meta-redux.

Whenever I'm confused about the direction our culture is going, I start to pay attention to television commercials again.



So, leave it to the hard-sell boys on Mad Ave to deep-focus my attention span. The whole Geico carpet-bombing campaign that by now has seemed to be inundating us for decades - i'nn'it? - is a fantastic product pitch. What's sold is the convenience of "switching." Forget about safety or peace of mind. A legally required nuisance is turned into an independent consumer's choice. This non-issue, of course, needs its appropriate fictional crisis in order to mask the fact that the choice is fictitious to begin with. (Oh, T-Dub Adorno, stop turning!) Enter the caveman and his indignant reptilian criticism. The clip up there is the perfect encapsulation of contemporary marketing strategies and shows how meta is not the new paradigm.


UPDATE:
The beauty that is this commercial derives from the fact that the scenario only works if you are already willingly predisposed to understand the reference to our indignant caveman in transit (muzak feat. Eliott Lipp). Haunted by the ignorant slights against his position, cavedude attempts to remove himself from the controversy by going on a leisurely vacation, whereupon he is confronted by his own stereotype and painfully realizes the limitations of identity politics once more. This recognizable frustration is what the commercial emphasizes in order to offer a sentiment of safety: I see what's happening as well, but I am not helpless. There is a number I can call without extreme prejudice. Thank Geico for God and the way things are.

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