September 10, 2004

		Geico Reaches Out to Cavemen
		INTERACTIVE: Tribal DDB Pitches "Pitch Black"
		BREAKING: Fallon Brings an Unusual Family Together for Holiday Inn
		MOVERS: Nicholson Out at Publicis/N.Y.
		ON THE WEB: If You Don't Help, Who Will?

Geico Reaches Out to Cavemen

Geico "Insult"

"It's so easy to use Geico.com, a caveman could do it," according to a new commercial for the insurance company. Cavemen, however, are taking offense. That's the premise of one of three so-called "mini-campaigns" from The Martin Agency that debuted this week. As that storyline unfolds, we see a caveman crew member storm off the set, cavemen at home getting angry about how "condescending" the commercial is and -- finally -- a meeting arranged so the Geico spokesman can apologize to the caveman community.

In two other campaigns -- also directed, like the caveman bit, by Omaha Pictures' Speck & Gordon -- we see parodies of ads for Old Navy, infomercials and reality shows, plus a trio of spots illustrating how quickly you can save money with Geico.

INTERACTIVE: Tribal DDB Pitches "Pitch Black"

Click to view.

In support of Mountain Dew's latest limited-run flavor, "Pitch Black" -- which mixes the taste of black grape into the MD formula -- New York's Tribal DDB has launched a microsite in the form of an online haunted house. The beverage, which will be available through Halloween, is being promoted with a horror-themed cinema trailer, and the site brings the same idea to the web. Armed with nothing but a virtual flashlight -- which only allows you to see part of the digital environment at any given time -- users are invited inside to search for such promotional staples as branded wallpaper and a Flash-based game called "Terror in the Woods" -- a first-person number seemingly inspired by The Blair Witch Project.

BREAKING

Holiday Inn "The Noses"

Fallon/Minneapolis has introduced an offbeat new spot for Holiday Inn, directed by Biscuit Filmworks' Noam Murro. The commercial tells the story of a family who all have enormous whistling noses, which can be a hardship -- we find out -- when it comes to libraries or hide-and-seek or going to the opera. But when the family gets together -- at a Holiday Inn, of course -- "something great happens."

MOVERS

Peter Nicholson, chief creative officer at Publicis/New York, has left the agency as the shop looks to streamline its creative department. ECDs Duncan Marshall and Howard Wilmott -- who joined the agency from Saatchi & Saatchi/London last year -- have been promoted to executive vice presidents and will run the department alongside EVP-ECD David Corr. Agency president Gill Duff tells AdAge.com that the presence of Publicis' worldwide chief creative officer David Droga -- also a Saatchi/London alum -- in the New York office provided the impetus for the move. Or, as Nicholson tells AdAge, the New York CCO job had become "redundant."

ON THE WEB

Crispin Porter + Bogusky has managed to slip some inside baseball into its latest website for Burger King. At www.angusinterventions.com, you can have BK's Dr. Angus intervene on your behalf with friends you are concerned about. In addition to warnings -- like "Stop Being Boring" or "Stop Being a Clean Freak" -- that might be useful to civilians, one of the fully-customizable message options is "Stop Chasing Awards." The folks at Adland have customized a version of it here.

MORE NEWS / ARCHIVE

Motion Theory Sets Up RESFEST [09.08.04]
Additions at Boone/Oakley, Crossroads and R!OT [09.08.04]
Absolut Unleashes Artists in New TV Campaign [09.08.04]
Additions at Blattner Brunner and Motion Theory [09.03.04]
Juicy Fruit Stays Twisted [09.03.04]
HP and iPod Mate for a Musical "Mash Up" [09.03.04]