Media Blog 1. It's Hump Day!

It's not Wednesday today, but that doesn't stop me from thinking about this little 30-second nugget of happiness:

What I love about this ad is the pure simplicity of it. Okay, maybe a camel walking around an office isn't everyone's idea of simple, but the light humor of the entire commercial really takes away from that strict insurance feel of it when they announce the Geico part at the end.

"Insurance." Boo. Hiss. The word just seems so uptight. Personally, when I think of the word "insurance," I think of men sitting upright in suits and ties and, of course, bills. It doesn't exactly have a fun feel to it, but this ad does give it a more lighthearted feel because it has a pun in it. Puns! Jokes! Insurance! Fun! Wait, did something get mixed up in there? Also, the music at the end of the commercial really takes off the seriousness of a topic like insurance. It makes it seem like Geico is a quality insurance company.

It seems like a use of the ethos and pathos appeals are being used, but they're not very clear. I feel like ethos would be used when the two guys with guitars say that people save hundreds of dollars. They establish facts and therefore seem more credible, but it seems a bit vague to me. Also, when the slogan is announced at the end: "15 minutes could save you 15% or more," the use of "could" would be considered a weasel word. How do we know they're not trying to say "15 minutes could save you 15% or more, but it could also leave you completely bankrupt and end up wasting all of your time." Pathos also comes in when one man says that people who switch to Geico would be "happier than a camel on Wednesday." This ad is saying that Geico can make you happy. People want to be happy, right?

While I do like this ad, I can't help but wonder how this helps convince anyone to switch to Geico. Maybe it could be an advertisement for some sort of technology that could give camels a sense of humor, but if I were to cut off the end, I would have never guessed that this would be a Geico advertisement. I understand where they are coming from, though; a light-hearted approach seems to be popular with insurance commercials. I've seen plenty of Progressive commercials that aim for the same type of humor. Overall, I'm pretty amused by the ad, but if I were searching for a good insurance company, the only thing this commercial would have me rushing to the phone for was to find out where I could purchase a camel.