GEICO Auto Insurance devised a series of cavemen commercials. One commercial advertisement that aired in September 2006 contained no dialogue, but used music, advertisements and a twist on the cavemen stereotype within the advertisement to sell the product.
Three cavemen commercials by GEICO aired in 2004, but after two years of cavemen absence, GEICO decided to bring back the commercials and the fourth aired in September of 2006. In the fourth commercial, a caveman on a intelligent airport sidewalk sees a billboard for GEICO featuring a stereotypical caveman along with the GEICO slogan, “So easy a caveman can do it.” The product the commercial is advertising for is GEICO Auto Insurance, but the advertisement is also selling an experience and a lifestyle. The experience that one gets with GEICO insurance is an easy one, while the lifestyle one gets with GEICO is a safe and insured one.
The commercial entertains the audience by using the familiar and likeable character of the caveman, and also uses an upbeat electronic song, “Remind Me” by Röyksopp, that plays in the background. The ad is also a parody of the opening scene of the 1967 film, The Graduate. In the movie, Dustin Hoffman’s character, Ben Braddock, walks on a moving sidewalk at an airport, demonstrating the ability to allude to different forms of media in a single advertisement.
By insisting that GEICO Insurance is “So easy a caveman can do it,” the ad creators are reaching out to customers who are either uninsured or unhappy with their current auto insurance. These are also customers who are not necessarily lacking in intelligence, but ones who value necessary tasks, such as obtaining auto insurance, to be simple, fast and easy. The geographic location that this commercial is geared towards is the District of Columbia and all of the United States, except Massachusetts, the only places where GEICO writes auto insurance.
The commercial succeeds in reaching this audience by using widely known stereotypes. The stereotype of the caveman contrasts with the “real-life caveman” because the billboard ad within the commercial depicts an image of a caveman that is hairy, wearing fur and holding a club. This image projects the stereotypical behavior of a caveman onto the viewer as well, behavior that is aggressive and has a effort adapting. The caveman in the commercial is depicted as completely regular and normal, despite his facial features and excess hair. Because of the opposition, the “regular” caveman in today’s society becomes offended at the obvious degradation of cavemen.
This advertisement uses the difference to stress its honesty about how easy GEICO auto insurance is to obtain and use. The “caveman” stereotype is one that was intelligently selected by GEICO because although it is widely known and understood by a variety of different ages and ethnicities, it is a stereotype that is rather uncontroversial to people of all backgrounds. A slur against Asian, African-American or female stereotypes would undoubtedly cause an uproar against people of those ethnicities or genders. Since there are no cavemen in today’s society, the commercials are completely fictional and are not used to slander any living human being.
This commercial definitely succeeded as an ad as GEICO continued to make more cavemen oriented commercials following this one. The popularity of these commercials was so spacious that in 2007, an interactive Web site about the characters was created. “Caveman Crib” features the inside of a technologically savvy and modern apartment of cavemen. The apartment comes complete with a laptop, a flat veil TV and even an IPod. When you enter the kitchen of the picturesque bachelor pad, you are able to click and hear speak messages left on the modern, cordless telephone. One message even refers to the caveman airport commercial when the fictional GEICO advertiser addresses the caveman’s questions about the offensive display, but suggests “we’re not positively obvious you saw one of our ads or not.” This sentence reaffirms the world’s blindness to the cavemen stereotype as depicted in the commercials. In October of 2007, a spin-off TV series on ABC was made titled, Cavemen. The show is described by ABC as a “unique buddy comedy that offers a clever twist on stereotypes and turns hurry relations on its head,” a statement that adequately describes not only the show and the interactive Web site, but also the entire message conveyed in all of the GEICO cavemen commercials.
Filed under Allstate by on Mar 14th, 2011. Comment. 
One of the biggest things you are going to have to exertion about after a hurricane hits would be your insurance coverage. My mother had to deal with the insurance several times when we got hit by Hurricanes Charley, Francis, and Jeanne. There’s a lot of red tape you’re going to have to deal with the insurance agencies such as Allstate, MetLife, and Situation Farm.
Recently, there courts ruled in favor of the insurance agencies after this long lawsuit filed against them by the victims of Hurricane Katrina. The story was that New Orleans became flooded. Most of the homes did not have a flood insurance plan but the flooding was caused by wind damage to the levees. The levees were built to withstand up to Category 3 hurricane winds. This was one of the biggest issues regarding Hurricane Katrina, the levees.
Hurricane Katrina was a Category 5 hurricane which in turn annihilated the levees. As a result, the levees broke and most of Fresh Orleans was flooded. Many of the claims were denied which led to the lawsuits. But the Federal Courts had ruled in favor of the insurance agencies. At the moment, there are appeals that are being filed as a result of the judgment.
Several months ago, I had seen a local news report about insurance. Ever since Charlie Crist had taken office early this year, one of his biggest aims was to reduce homeowner’s insurance which is skyrocketing. He was also pushing for legislation to lower insurance rates and premiums set by the insurance agencies. In short, this was the platform that had gotten him elected as current governor of Florida.
Many Republicans and Democrats alike have been impressed and gay by Crist keeping his word trying to lower the insurance rates. During his first few months in office, Crist had called meetings about the insurance crisis. At the same time, insurance rates were escalating along with property taxes because of the constant construction since 2004.
The insurance companies said that if you want reduced insurance, you should drop wind insurance coverage. You could do that and lower your insurance rates. That will save you a lot on your insurance premiums but there is one thing you must know. In a hurricane, most of the damage to your home will be a result of wind damage. Just about most of the structural hurt will be the result of wind damage.
I worked as a substitute teacher for two years and didn’t get many calls for the latter allotment of 2004. The reason I didn’t get that many calls were because most of the schools had suffered structural hurt. Most of the damage affected the second and third floors of the schools as the violent wind force can get very devastating at an upper level.
If you live in an area that is a possible hurricane target zone, you will need wind coverage on your insurance plan. Don’t take that gamble by not getting wind coverage on your opinion. Hopefully you will not get hit by a hurricane. But in case you do get hit by hurricane, keep your wind coverage on your understanding. If you do not, you could possibly shoot yourself in the foot should a hurricane hit your area.
In my case if we didn’t get wind coverage, we wouldn’t have a house standing afterwards.
If you live in an area that’s prone to flooding, get flood coverage as part of your plan. There is the chance you can get in a flood as a result of a hurricane. Mainly, you need to have wind coverage.
Flood insurance is maybe. But before you have a talk with your insurance company, talk to your lawyer first before filing a claim. The thing is making obvious you’re well protected after a hurricane hits.
Wind insurance will be the most important coverage you will need if and when you live in an area that could get hit by a hurricane. Everything else such as fires and flooding in a hurricane is probably the result of wind damage. If an object flies into your window, that’s a result of wind damage.
Wind damage doesn’t necessarily mean by the force of wind. It can include things such as projectile debris. Debris isn’t going to lift off the ground by itself magically. It’s going to take a obedient amount of wind power to lift those things from the ground and hit your house and/or vehicle. That’s a result of wind damage.
Make sure you have wind coverage on your insurance plan. Due to all the red tape and everything else associated with the insurance agencies, make sure you get a lawful consult as well. Consult with your lawyer before you file your claim.
The insurance agencies will stick to their guns. At the same time you need to stick to your guns as well. This is coming from a person whose uncle works as an insurance agent.
Filed under Allstate by on Feb 27th, 2011. Comment.
Progressive umbrage Keith and Rachel ha
Unwilling to reduce slack they are so smart
They know things would get done if they just ruled
Time they and Abba had a heart to heart
Progressive Umbrage – Quatrain
Filed under Allstate by on Feb 20th, 2011. Comment.
This is a list of companies that hire telecommuters (for remote or virtual jobs) and companies that have hired telecommuters in the past – both as freelance telecommuters and remote workers as well as regular virtual employees.
When visiting the company websites, search for current job openings with the keywords “telecommuting”, “remote”, “home”, and “virtual”. Note that not all these companies are hiring telecommuters or remote workers at the moment and vacancies change often.
Aetna Life Insurance – http://www.aetna.com
Allegiance Health Care- http://www.baxter.com
AG Communication – http://www.agcs.com
Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. – http://www.airproducts.com
American Airlines – http://www.aa.com
American Express – http://www.americanexpress.com
Ameritech – http://www.ameritech.com
Allergan – http://www.allergan.com
Allstate Insurance – http://www.allstate.com
Apple Computer – http://www.apple.com
Arbitron Ratings Inc. – http://www.arbitron.com/jobs/home.htm
Art & Logic – http://www.artlogic.com
AT&T – http://www.att.com/employment/cpa.html
Bank of America – http://www.bofa.com/batoday/batoday.html
Banker’s Trust – http://www.bankerstrust.com
Baxter Healthcare – http://www.baxter.com
Bell South – http://www.bellsouth.com
Beneficial Corporation – http://www.beneficial.com
Berlitz Translation Services – http://www.berlitz.com
Blue Cross/Blue Shield – http://www.bluecross.com
CFW Communications – http://www.cfw.com
Chevron – http://www.chevron.com
CIGNA – http://www.cigna.com
Cincinnati Bell – http://www.cinbelltel.com
CISCO Systems, Inc. – http://www.cisco.com
Citibank – http://www.citibank.com
Compaq Computer Corporation – http://www.compaq.com
Computer Curriculum Corp. – http://www.cccnet.com (Email: jobs@cccnet.com)
Connext Inc. – http://www.connext.com
Creative Freelance -http://www.freelancers.com
Creative Labs – http://www.soundblaster.com – Engineers.
Creative Freelancers- http://www.freelancers.com/
Dell Computer – http://www.dell.com
Diamond Multimedia Systems, Inc. – http://www.diamondmm.com – Software engineers, technical support, marketing and sales.
Digital Equipment Corporation – http://www.digital.com
Digital News – http://www.digitalnews.com
Digital Origin Inc.- http://www.digitalorigin.com
DSP TEchnology, Inc. – http://www.dspt.com – Software and application engineers.
DuPont – http://www.dupont.com
Ernest & Young, L.L.P. – http://www.ey.com
Eastman Kodak Company – http://www.kodak.com
EasyCom – http://www.easycom.com
Edify Corp. – http://www.edify.com -
Electronics for Imaging, Inc. – http://www.efi.com – Web developers and QA.
En Pointe Technologies – http://www.enpointe.com – Sales staff.
Equitable Life Assurance – http://www.equitable.com
Fannie Mae – http://www.fanniemae.com
Farallon Computing – http://www.farallon.com
The Federal Government – http://www.jobsingovernment.com
Gannett – http://www.gannett.com
GEICO – http://www.geico.com – They offer telecommuting and other flexible schedules.
General Electic Nuclear Energy – http://www.ge.com – Primarily looking for Engineers.
GTE – http://www.gte.com
GE Plastics- http://www.ge.com
Globalink Language Services http://www.lhsl.com/jobs/
Gymboree Corp. – Job Hotline 1-800-222-7758.
Hewlett-Packard – http://www.hp.com Software and hardware design engineers, manufacturing engineers, product marketing, sales development, finance and human resource professionals.
Hello Command, Inc. – http://www.hello-direct.com
Honeywell – http://www.honeywell.com
Hughes Aircraft – http://www.hughes.com
Hypermedia Group, Inc. – http://www.hmg.com
IBM – http://www.ibm.com – programmers, user-centered design programmers, technical and customer service support., IBM also uses the services of contractors on a regular basis.
Inktomi Corp. – http://www.inktomi.com – Computer engineers.
Inprise – formerly Borland Inc.
/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm? site http://www.inprise.com/about/
Insignia Solutions, Inc. – http://www.insignia.com – Technical serve, sales and customer service.
Intel – http://www.intel.com – Engineers.
Intellicorp, Inc. – http://www.intellicorp.com – SAP consultants.
Interactive Systems – http://www.interactivesystems.com
Intracorp – http://www.intracorp.com
JCPenney – http://www.jcpenney.com
Jet Propulsion Laboratory – http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/hrext/employment/
John Hancock Insurance – http://www.johnhancock.com
Johnson & Company – http://joandco.com/about/helpWanted.html
Journal Graphics – http://www.journalgraphics.com/Jobs/Current.htm
Knight-Ridder Information, Inc. – http://www.krinfo.com -
San Jose Mercury News – http://www.sjmercury.com -
LAM Research Corp. – http://www.lamrc.com -
Lanier Worldwide Inc.- http://www.lanier.com
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory – http://www.llnl.gov – Computer engineers and optical electrical engineers.
LINK Resources Corporation – http://www.linkresources.com
Lucent Technologies- http://www.lucent.com/work/culture.html
Lumisys, Inc. – http://www.lumisys.com
Macromedia Inc. – http://www.macromedia.com
MacWEEK – http://www.zdnet.com
Maxtor Corp. – http://www.maxtor.com
McGraw Hill – http://www.mcgraw-hill.com
Meridian Data, Inc. – http://www.meridian-data.com
Merrill Lynch – http://www.ml.com/
Microsoft Corp. – http://www.microsoft.com
Molecular Devices Corp. – http://www.moldev.com
National Association of Insurance Commissioners – http://www.naic.com -
NEC Electronics, Inc. – http://www.nec.com – Telecommuting program handled on a case by case basis.
Netframe Systems, Inc. – http://www.netframe.com – They are looking for hardware and software engineers.
Netscape Communications Corp. – http://www.netscape.com The jobs hotline is 1-415-937-2783.
NewsBank – http://www.newsbank.com/
Newsbytes News Service – http://www.newsbytes.com/
Nike – http://www.nike.com
Nortel (Northern Telecom) – http://www.nortel.com/
Oacis Healthcare Systems – http://www.oacis.com – They are looking for
software development, clinical system and applications engineers.
Oak Technology, Inc. – http://www.oaktech.com – IC invent and software
engineers.
Octel Communications Corp. – http://www.octel.com
Oracle Corp. – http://www.oracle.com
The Olsten Corporation – http://www.olsten.com/employ/index.html
Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical http://www.oracle.com
Pacific Bell – http://www.sbc.com
PC Week – http://www.zdnet.com
Peoplesoft, Inc. – http://www.peoplesoft.com – Software developers, support, consulting and trainers
Prime Computer Systems: http://www.primecomputer.net
Philips C&P Division – http://www.philips.com
Quantum Corp. – http://www.quantum.com
Quintus Corp. – http://www.quintus.com – Looking for quality assurance
engineers, professional services consultants and technical support engineers.
Radius, Inc. – http://www.radius.com
The RAND Corporation: http://www.rand.com/careers/
Raytheon Systems – http://www.raytheon.com/rsc -
Remedy Corp. – http://www.remedy.com
Rockwell International Corporation – http://www.rockwell.com/jobs
Santa Cruz Operation, Inc. – http://www.sco.com
Sears, Roebuck & Co. – http://www.sears.com
The Seattle Times- http://www.seattletimes.com/
SEEQ Technology, Inc. – http://www.seeq.com -
Siemens Business Communication Systems, Inc. – http://www.siemens.com -
Sprint – http://www.sprint.com
Sun Microsystems – http://www.sun.com
Symantec Corp. – http://www.symantec.com
Tab Products Co. – http://www.tabproducts.com
Texas Instruments – http://www.ti.com
UMI/Data Courier – http://www.umi.com
Unigroup Inc. – http://www.unigroup.com
United Press International – http://www.upi.com
Vanstar Corporation – www.skillnet.skillset.com/inacom
Verifone, Inc. – http://www.verifone.com
Verizon formerly Bell Atlantic – http://www.verizon.com
VirtualStaff – http://www.virtualstaff.com
Xerox – http://www.zerox.com
Xyratex- http://www.xyratex.com
Zitel Corp. – http://www.zitel.com
Filed under Allstate by on Dec 18th, 2010. Comment.
The other day, Shivraj Singh Chauhan, chief minister (CM) of the central Indian province of Madhya Pradesh (MP), came out with a startling statement. Speaking at the Panna Tiger Reserve he asserted that he was not in favour of creating a buffer zone for it. One could not “destroy” Panna only to let the tigers “survive”, he said. He further asserted that humans were more principal than tigers.
Apparently, he has played into the hands of his political cronies who have mining interests in the areas that fall in the proposed buffer and have been opposing the creation of the same. The CM seemed to be quite oblivious of the fact that a national legislation, the Wildlife Act, makes creation of buffer zones mandatory for all tiger reserves. These zones are vital as they allow tigers more status and the freedom to recede freely in the sanctuary and help in avoiding man-animal conflicts. The CM also appeared to have forgotten that only last year Panna had lost all its tigers and a multi-million rupee project was conceived by his government to relocate to it tigers from Kanha and Bandhavgarh Reserves. If he holds survival of tigers unimportant, why did he have millions of rupees spent from the public exchequer for these relocations?
This unpleasant episode indicates how poor his conception is of the importance of tigers in the Indian forests and the ecosystems they sustain in the context of prosperity and wellbeing of the very humans he considers so important. He has opted for short-term gains. Seemingly, he is not equipped to bask in the fact that the industrialisation of the state that his government is chasing will be jeopardised if tiger does not survive in the forests of the state. He has, apparently, never paused to think that disappearance of tigers from the wild would be the nemesis of the forests, eventually threatening the state’s water sources, its food security and even its industrialisation.
Unfortunately, his government has, of late, taken several steps that threaten the existence of tigers in the state’s forests. Permitting tourists in core areas, approving widening of a highway that fragments tiger habitats of Kanha and Pench reserves are instances that are only illustrative. No wonder, the state topped the charts last year with 13 tiger deaths out of 59 in the country and is likely to better its record in 2010.
That environment has lost its due importance and the necessary priority with the current government of Madhya Pradesh became apparent last year. In its preceding avatar the BJP government under the same leadership was so interested in matters relating to environment that the chief minister had a proposal formulated for declaration of Bhopal as a Global Environment City (GEC). The genesis of the idea was traced back to the Bhopal Gas Tragedy of 1984 that came to be known as the world’s worst industrial disaster. It caused immense environmental damage and the city acquired notoriety worldwide that despoiled its image. With an intense desire to refurbish that image, the chief minister went to the length of discussing his proposal with the Prime Minister and, later, constituted a committee under the chairmanship of the well-known urban administrator, Mahesh Buch. Eventually, however, nothing came off the proposal. The committee met several times spending a lot of public money but its report was such which its chairman did not deign to sign.
Since then the government seemed to have lost its way and given up nurturing environment. It forgot all that it had put in its proposal for making Bhopal a GEC and adopted measures that were contrary to its own proposals. The most brazen example of this attitudinal change was the Bhopal City Development View 2021 that was released late last year. The Plan was an attempt to hand over this fine and green city to the building mafia. Instead of nurturing the city’s environmental assets as it had earlier proposed, the Conception tried to play with its ecological health. Land use was mercilessly changed and a stench of massive corruption pervaded the city and the state. Farm lands, banks of lakes, hills etc., that were to be conserved under the proposal for conversion as GEC, were build up for grabs. It was only the civil society which, rising as one man, made the government backtrack and virtually cancel the Conception.
Reckless urban expansion, however, is continuing all over. In Bhopal, for example, the surrounding fertile farm lands in thousands of hectares are being gobbled up for construction of gated complexes for the rich. The land mafia is having a great time. These high-end complexes are dependent on groundwater, levels of which are plummeting every passing year. And, the very hills around the city that were proposed under the GEC for “ecological amelioration” are being de-greened and handed over to public and private builders. Worse, so far the government has failed to enforce adoption of any “green” measure on them.
Besides, for want of a precise and decent public transport system the residents of these far-flung complexes will have no alternative but to be car-dependent, adding to the already expansive carbon emissions. Bhopal stands second in the state after Indore in these emissions. Rising air pollution is common in all major cities of the province for which it has so far been “business as usual”. No comprehensive attempts to curb the rising emissions have been attempted now that the country has become the third biggest carbon-emitter after China and the US. Looking at what is happening in the urban centres one tends to think that environment impact assessments of even large public or private residential projects need to be made mandatory.
Progressive urbanisation in the plot has been accompanied by a massive failure in civic administration. This was reflected in the recent “Rating of Cities” that was carried out under the National Urban Sanitation Policy. The cities of the position figure way down in ratings, with the capital figuring at 253 out of 423 cities rated on the basis of data tranquil between December 2009 and March 2010. In fact, the civic life of the people in urban Madhya Pradesh is in tatters. The scourge of plastic continues. Instead of banning it like several other states and save on import of crude petroleum, attempts are being made to feed feeble plastic to cement kilns. That plastic is polluting and chokes drains causing floods is being glossed over.
The state’s water sources are also in a sorry state. River Narmada, the main river of the state, is being heavily tapped for both urban and agricultural use and yet it is progressively losing its discharge which, in any case, is polluted. A ruling party biggy, who travelled down the river from its source to its confluence with Arabian Sea, witnessed to his anxiety not only shrinkage of forests at its source but also a tear that had appreciably gone down that receives during its course through the state a large volume of industrial and urban effluents. Despite his report nothing noteworthy has been done to take care of the River. Such, however, is the condition of most of the state’s rivers which have reduced flows and have become veritable sewers.
With no glacial-melt the state is dependent on forest-fed rivers. Forests are, therefore, important for the state in all its economic activities, including industrialisation. That is precisely where the significance of tiger lies. Its survival in the forests of the state is primary for its prosperity and well being in the long term. Clearly, the chief minister has been barking up the wrong tree.
Filed under Allstate by on Dec 15th, 2010. Comment.
