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Get Geico Get Happy

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Get Geico, Get Happy! Geico is a car insurance company which has used several advertising techniques that address many of the fifteen basic appeals, described by Jib Fowles, to gain potential customers (Fowles 1). For instance, the need for affiliation has been catered to through advertising depicting Geico as the best there is. People tend to affiliate themselves with top companies. Emotional appeal is catered to primarily; the premise being to invoke the idea that getting Geico insurance will make you happy. A series of “Happier Than” television advertisements were aired (Geico). Each episode portrays a random scenario, followed by two Bluegrass pickers named Ronny and Jimmy, performing a slapstick routine on a small stage. Each event …show more content…

In terms of social networking, the commercial appeals to the human need to be affiliated with friends and good times on a social level (Fowles 5). The entire scene is set within a home where there is a cozy fire burning in the hearth. As mentioned, two men and two women are present, and they are engaged in a game of charades when, while Revere is pondering how to enact his queue, the church bells ring out. Looking out his window, he sees the signal light in the church steeple and immediately speed dials a contact from his cell phone to inform them that, “hey, they 're coming” and “yeah British, later.” Completing the call, he quickly turns back to his guests, apologizing for the interruption and returning to the game; much to the delight of the other man and women. In terms of patriotic affiliation, history has shown that Paul Revere was in fact a key part in gaining U.S. independence. He belonged to something bigger than himself and fulfilled his role as a patriot. The audience is led to believe they can share that same feeling of being affiliated with something larger than themselves that gives them pride, such as being a patriot, by switching to Geico. This commercial also appeals to the need for guidance (Fowles 6). People listened when Paul Revere made his midnight ride shouting that the British were coming. It is implied now too that people will still listen to him. He might not be telling the audience that the

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