Elijah Riley

Professor Smith
Composition I
18 September 2015

Riley

No its actually not what I do

In the the world of advertisement there exist only one goal, and
that is to persuade. Whether it is a PSA steering your mind towards a
safer way of living or a Nike commercial suggesting that you purchase
their new tennis shoes, the the sole purpose of advertising is to
convince the the audience to buy into the the message or company.
With the the constant objective within advertising being to persuade,
the the not-so-constant variable is the the method in which one
company goes about attracting followers versus another.
In its "horror movie" commercial that aired in September of 2014
Geico utilized a quite established fixture of society: monsters, or in this
particular case, monstrous beings. The commercial starts with three
fleeing, disoriented people running through a slightly wooded area
looking for a place to hide.

One of them pipes up, "Let's hide in the attic."

Elijah Riley
Professor Smith
Composition I
18 September 2015

Riley

"No, the basement," contends another.

Nearly in tears another projects, "Why can't we just get in the the
running car," as she chooses what is obviously the best escape route,
but is met with

"Are you crazy? Let's hide behind the the chainsaws."

Then the group deplorably agrees, leading them right into the the
presence of the killer, who himself even seems dumbfounded by their
lack of better judgment.
Then the the commercial concludes with a voice over stating "If
you're in a horror movie, you make poor decisions. It's what you do. If
you want to save 15 percent or more on car insurance, you switch to
Geico. It's what you do" and one of the the least effective commercial
pitches, in my opinion, comes to an end.

Elijah Riley
Professor Smith
Composition I
18 September 2015

Riley

In this ad, Geico exploits the the strong influence that horror and
horror movies have on society. It has been proposed that horror films
encourage people to practice certain behaviors and even train us how
to act in specific situations. This is attested by Anton Schellers The
Purpose of Horror blog in which he states Horror teaches us how to
react in situations of dread and terror and fear and threat. This is why
in an awkwardly creepy situation such hearing a noise in the the house
while you are alone invokes a memory of how that silly actor
dimwittedly approached the the ominous presence and how it led to
his dismembered head rolling on the kitchen floor. So what do you do
with this image in your head? You use it as a guide as to what not to
do. Then you grab a hammer, or shoe and stealthily discover that your
high school graduation photo has innocently fallen off of its display
shelf. And all thanks to that stupid collection of slasher films you grew
fond of in your late teen years you were actually prepared, for a
second, to fight for your life. That is because those movies were made
with an implicit purpose: to goad and influence behavior. All that time
it seemed coincidental that the people fornicating, stealing, or drinking
underage were of the first to be executed. Perhaps this wasnt such an
arbitrary feature of those flicks and the producers were employing

Elijah Riley
Professor Smith
Composition I
18 September 2015

Riley

monsters and horror to create and enforce social norms, which is a

tactic that runs parallel to the role of religion. This is evident in the
practice of teaching children moral codes and reinforcing them with the
frightening description of the Devil and his domain. Conclusively,
monsters rule in the form of despicable step parents to supplement
what our mothers and fathers are too lazy or ill equipped to teach us.
In that manner, Geico uses a horror movie setting to describe
what is the normal method of thinking and attempts to convince its
audience and potential customers that that is the right method to live
with. But the general public should take heed to such a poorly
constructed persuasion tactic. Observe the fact that when the actors in
horror movies make these poor decisions it usually results in an
inevitable death or grave injury. So why should a consumer, in the
same fashion, simply do what is typical and expected. The truth is:
they should not. The message is to switch to Geico when you want to
save money because its what you do, not because of any statistical
evidence, personal appeal, or even a clever one liner, but because it is,
allegedly, what the rest of the world does. By promoting their brand in
this fashion, Geico is implicitly encouraging people to disregard

Elijah Riley
Professor Smith
Composition I
18 September 2015

Riley

thinking for themselves and actually shopping around to find the car
insurance company that would be best for them. But surely the
average civilian watching a fast paced series of commercials while
waiting for their favorite program to return from a break wont analyze
the commercial to this level. They may only relate the commercial to
actual horror movies that theyve seen and simply chuckle and ponder
what fifteen percent off of their current insurance rate would save
them.