2007-01-17 14:04:47 · 15 answers · asked by Anonymous in Social Science ➔ Anthropology
Here's a short version of the answer I gave someone who asked a similar question:
If you pay attention, everyone in the commercials, except the cavemen, are white: the news people, the psychiatrist, the GEICO representatives. Since the commercial is basically about a fictional minority group trying to, and failing to, fix their public image, this plays on an old dichotomy that we're very familiar with in the US: the whites vs. the non-whites.
What these commercials end up doing is using the caveman as a comic placeholder for X minority group. There is an implicit structural equation of cavemen with real-life minorities. This is not to say that Geico is saying that minorities share the qualities of cavemen, but that the cavemen are doing things that we would expect to see African-Americans, Muslims, and Hispanics doing. For what it's worth, the white people in the commercial do that same thing that we have come to expect from white people in real life: a generally dismissive attitude towards issues of sensitivity about minority representation.
GEICO is giving us a story that is all-too familiar to minorities, but with one critical change: instead of a real minority group (which would make the commercial tragic), they use an imaginary minority group (which somehow transforms it into comedy). At face value, these commercials are extremely well-done, and actually very clever. Upon deeper inspection, I do think that they are troublesome, if not exactly offensive, in that they are basically turning a real-life social justice issue into comic fodder.
2007-01-20 09:12:31 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
A caveman is just a man who lives in a cave. If I were a man who lived in a cave, I'd be offended that people thought I was stupid just because I lived in a cave. The "caveman" being referred to in the commercial would be the Neandertalish connotation that "cavemen" have been given due to the fact that most Neanertals lived in caves (and why not? They're protected from the elements, drier, and warm in winter and cool in summer). Besides, there really is no way to know exactly how intelligent Neandertals were. They obviously were able to adapt to their environment well enough to survive in it as long as they did, and we really have no grounds to say they were any less smart than we as anatomically modern humans are.
So in conclusion, it all depends on if you know someone who lives in a cave or not.
2007-01-17 17:39:53 · answer #2 · answered by chlyte 2 · 2⤊ 1⤋
on the floor no...it particularly is not offensive...there are not any cavemen left to be indignant by using this... although, I do think of that what is going on with those advertisements is slightly deeper than a floor study. element of what makes them humorous is that the fact, "incredibly common a caveman ought to do it" is that it mirrors racist statements that folk ought to have suggested interior the previous, that have been considered ideal on the time. in simple terms eliminate the be conscious caveman and put in a racially derogatory term, and issues rapidly substitute. i think of that this provides mock politically splendid language that would not enable us to apply those words anymore. it particularly is the thank you to assert something this is racially charged with out asserting something racially charged. So, interior the tip, it particularly is not humorous. that's offensive simply by deep historic shape below it. it particularly is not as harmless because it first seems.
2016-12-12 14:03:12 · answer #3 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Not really, no matter what the commercials would have you believe. Cavemen would have a different skill set, and thus being able to utilize a modern service would represent an accomplishment that should be relatively easy for modern man, thus the saying.
2007-01-17 16:09:52 · answer #4 · answered by Danny Malone 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Woke up on the wrong side of the rock OFFENDED - cause everywhere I go there's something to re-mind me....BUT I got the check, got the car keys, it's my birthday, went to Allstate..... Payback, this time - it's for real!
All these questions about me personal life, luv....
2007-01-20 11:44:15 · answer #5 · answered by Quest 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No it isn't offencive. What is offencive is that a group of idiots would actually get together to protest the idea that someone would actually use that line to sell a product!
2007-01-19 04:13:00 · answer #6 · answered by the old dog 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
I'm pretty sure that Geico caveman is gay!
2007-01-17 15:08:01 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I'll have the roast duck with the mango salsa.
2007-01-20 07:11:33 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
If cavemen still walked this planet, it would be. Cavemen are one "nationality" that doesn't exist anymore and therefore can not be offended by it.
2007-01-17 14:10:34 · answer #9 · answered by NSnoekums 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
I have a sick crush the one from the airport!
2007-01-17 15:46:39 · answer #10 · answered by gus_zalenski 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋