I might be an unfrozen caveman lawy- Wait wrong show

ABC now has official footage from the caveman show online, view at your own peril. What struck me as a major mistake was the sloppy attitude the show seems to take towards the makeup on the cavemen. I swear there was more makeup on the Klingons in the original James T. Kirk Star Trek series, and I’ve never said anything that mean before.

I guess this is a natural course of events: A bad TV show is based on a good commercial campaign which is based on a hypothetical bad commercial. Time will only tell whether or not the pilot even makes it on the air.

This always happens to me

A few weeks ago we looked at some Axe Body Spray ads. This spot is a funny addition to their series, managing the line between sexy and humorous quite well.

The biggest plus is that it doesn’t go too over the top. The old woman in the wheelchair is pushed off screen, but we don’t see her screaming down the aisle and crashing into anything; meanwhile the main actress commits very well to the part.

Being fairly jaded with all advertising, it’s rare to run across an ad that is enjoyable. Still, I don’t know about the product. I’ve been drinking a can of axe every day for like a month and it just keeps making me sick.

Live from the Tri-State Penitentiary

In elementary school there was sometimes this kid who would run around literally asking other kids to beat him up, to give him some kind of weird form of attention. This commercial is just like that kid I used to beat up out of pity; it’s just asking for everyone to make fun of it.

FINE commercial, I’ll beat you up. This spot is actually part of a small and self-admittedly low budget campaign. You can try to view them all on the company website, though there’s no download progress bar so you just have to sit around waiting for the video to magically start.

It’s low budget and weird, seemingly the stuff dreams are made of. But raking it over the coals seems too easy, like aggravating the clerk at the post office, or pushing a grandmother down the stairs. Sure it’s a cinch to do, but it just feels vaguely wrong.

I’ll let history judge the rest of the content, but the tagline (“..you don’t know!”) is an advertising victory.

Tale as old as time song as old as rhyme Mac and the PC

It can’t always just be about awful commercials, so with the release of three new Mac ads (Party is Over, Genius, and Choose a Vista) it is a good time to talk about a campaign I actually do like. There are a rare few of these spots I don’t love (the Flashback one is my least favorite), and the commercials are enjoyable to people who don’t use Macs, saving except diehard PC fanboys who are easily offended.

The success of these spots are obviously the result of a casting slam-dunk. The “Mac”, aka Justin Long might best be known outside these commercials as the actor from the movie Accepted. John Hodgman has worked with the Daily Show, and I’ve heard good things about his book, The Areas of my Expertise.

(Oh there is more…)

Cavemen on TV..I mean, more so

This review by Derek Flint of the new Geico Cavemen TV pilot might be ill news to the many fans of the commercials who have visited the site.

To quote:

“The creators have tried to infuse social satire by making the show an allegory for prejudice. They draw astoundingly leaden parallels to every minority group in the world without a laugh in sight. It’s jaw dropping horrendous and actually makes “American Dad’s” lunkheaded topicality seem sophisticated.”

Though the thing which seems to place the show most in jeopardy is the confirmation that none of the original actors we like so much in the original commercials appear in the show. Even though I like the spots, I admit the idea of a TV show concerned me. I’m wondering if the pilot will ever see the light of broadcast now.

Update:
Oh no, here is official footage on abc.com from the pilot.