commercial wars

there's nothing a day-time t.v. addict such as myself enjoys more than a juicy commercial war. there are, of course, the stupid, blatant ones ("better than the other leading brand!"). but the jewels are the clever, witty ones. most recently, the geico-ais war. geico's mascot is the gecko (why he speaks with a brittish accent, i have no idea). recently, ais (auto insurance specialists) ran an ad with the tagline, "a more evolved choice," indicating their web site offers advanced options for "those with opposable thumbs." they show a picture of a gecko eating the aflac duck and a moose (elk? deer? not sure whose maskot that is).

Geico's response: so easy even the caveman can do it. i absolutely love their commercial. a caveman dressed in jeans and a hip sweatshirt is at an airport on one of those moving walkways. he passes a number of billboards, including geico's, depicting a caveman in front of a computer. the camera stops on the the image, and a moment later, the caveman comes walking back, takes a second look at the billboard, nods, and smiles.

paced to norwegian electonic-pop band röyksopp's remind me, the commercial comes off cool, collected, and clever.