It's an Ad. But Is It Art?

If you think commercials are the stupid parts of TV, two new shows may prove you wrong

Gale Adler / ABC

Prehistoric pool dweller, ABC is turning a clever ad for insurance into a prime-time sitcom.

Clarification Appended, June 22, 2007

As sometimes happens on TV, the Geico "Cavemen" ad campaign was a good idea born of a lame one. The concept, says Joe Lawson, one of the writers who conceived it, was that signing up with the insurer online was so easy "even a caveman" could do it. "It was just a dumb way of saying that our website is really easy," Lawson says. So he and his collaborators added a twist: a group of modern-day cavemen protesting the stereotyping of the ad-within-an-ad while the agency tries to make amends.

The campaign worked--so well...

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