Haven't seen the ads, but a friend works for geico and sent this link to Caveman's Crib. It cracked me up...and she says the entire project was produced by geico employees on their off time. Impressive.

Is TWOP down? If so, is it American Idol related?

I don't know, but last week I tried to get in at about 10 pm-- big mistake! I don't think it's AI as much as it is the confluence of Survivor, AI, CSI, Supernatural, Ugly Betty, The Office....I wonder how much other AI fans are like me and simply don't tune in to the Thursday show because there's so much else on.

Speaking of which, seriously people: 30 Rock was grrreat last night. I AM Liz Lemon.

My commute was a joke this morning. Or a nightmare. I thought I might actually never get out of the subway.

It makes me laugh that rain completely shuts the damn train down. When I came in the station this morning the downtown express was on its way uptown and the extremely crowded local had no plans to move from the station. At Chambers there was a closed up local just sitting there on the tracks.

damn, I hate that caveman ad series.

Oh, I really dig it: first, how the actor they've got can actually express through that makeup-- it wasn't until I started seeing a lot of commercial actors perform around New York that I realized how talented a lot of these people are, to express a lot in a single look. Second, how the structure allows them to have a funny joke unrelated to the storyline that closes each commercial with a nice bang (like "I'll have the roast duck with the mango salsa" "looks like someone woke up on the wrong side of the rock" and "it's my mom, I'll put her on speaker."). Third, how the commercials are memorable and communicate exactly the advertiser's message in about fifeen seconds. For the recent "party" one I was stunned at how many plot points they crammed into about ten lines.

Uh, Bob and I spend too much time talking about these commercials.

What are the chances of the actors in the ads getting cast in the series? Sometimes I look at commercial actors (and even moreso at stock photography models and the ones you see in scenes on the cover of Network Computing et al.) and think "There's someone else that'll never be famous."

Evangeline Lilly is noted for making the transition, but in the past five years or so I more expect TV stars to be moonlighting. Which reminds me--very irritating to see State Farm ads with Dennis Haysbert during The Unit. Messes with the show for me.

very irritating to see State Farm ads with Dennis Haysbert during The Unit. Messes with the show for me.

It causes a fair amount of whiplash. First he's crashing some military truck and shooting holes in it, then he's offering me insurance if I crash mine! Sheesh.

Nothing beats that Maybelline ad during The Body, though!

The State Farm ads depressed me during 24, last season. I had a really hard time letting go of President Palmer. Those ads just rubbed salt in the wound.

Scott would have a great time watching commercials with bon bon and Bob. He's such a fan, but I completely tune them out. He generally has to rewind and make me watch the good ones, because otherwise, I'm oblivious to them.

For the record, I like the caveman ads a whole lot -- though I only have to sit through them when I want to because of the magic of TiVo. But for a long time I've thought that cavemen get a raw deal in the popular imagination, because they were damn smart, just stuck in a much rougher environment than we have.

Also, weren't most of the Muppets originally created in commercials?

I totally think caveman would kick astronaut bootie.

I totally think caveman would kick astronaut bootie.

Heh.

They should have a short scene where a caveman and an astronaut get into an elevator. They exchange looks, and then the elevator doors close. Then we cut to a shot on a different floor - the elevator doors open and we see the astronaut crumpled in the corner as the caveman casually walks out of the elevator.

Actually, aren't they Allstate ads? Good hands=allstate. Like a good neighbor=state farm.