GEICO Cavemen Commercial: 2008 Super Bowl – Does Self-Mockery Work?

Inspired by the original GEICO Cavemen commercials, ABC decided to launch a Cavemen TV Show. The show flopped miserably. The Chicago Tribune called it one of the worst 25 TV shows of all time.

Not surprisingly, the show was canceled. And GEICO decided they’d capitalize on the show’s failure by employing a little self-mockery. They aired this commercial during Super Bowl 2008:

The GEICO commercial positions the “real” Cavemen (from the GEICO commercials) as analysts of the “fake” Cavemen from the ABC TV Show, suggesting that the mistake was in using fake Cavemen who wore makeup.

In my opinion the commercial worked for two reasons. First, it referenced a real cultural phenomenon that people could identify with: the putrid quality of the Cavemen TV show. Second, by poking fun at the TV Show using a bit of ingenious self-mockery, GEICO was able to separate and resurrect its own Cavemen from the death they died in the TV show.

America likes when its superstars acknowledge their mistakes and poke fun at themselves. Politicians know this all too well and regularly engage in the practice. In my opinion, GEICO did exactly what was necessary to re-animate the classic Cavemen ad series.