Podcast
99% Invisible
It was a short story collection that the speaker, Noel, was reading while working on a GEICO advertising campaign. The title story, about a caveman-themed tourist attraction, helped inspire the campaign's 'so easy a caveman can do it' slogan.
Noel was also in the midst of reading the short story collection, Pastorelia, by the writer George Saunders.
— Episode: What Gave You That Idea
Episode: What Gave You That Idea
It was a short story collection that the speaker, Noel, was reading while working on a GEICO advertising campaign. The title story, about a caveman-themed tourist attraction, helped inspire the campaign's 'so easy a caveman can do it' slogan.
Noel was also in the midst of reading the short story collection, Pastorelia, by the writer George Saunders.
The title story is about a theme park where tourists come to learn how other civilizations live.
It was like taking a natural cave with stalactites and stalagmites and then showing what life was like back in caveman times by hiring these low-ran actors.
And then all of a sudden I'm like, wait a second, these cavemen from the Saunders book, like that's perfect. And the whole slogan came to me fully formed.
Like the George Saunders story, the ads are funny, but also a little sad.