I’m 27, single, and on facebook. That much you know. What you may not know: I am also boss of a global empire of organised crime. A level 270 insomniac, I have an hourly income of nearly $2 billion. That works out to a cool $17.5 quadrillion in annual income–and that’s tax-free. I guess I do have to pay the bank 10% every time I make a deposit. But I’m pretty sure my fellow Americans in the $17.5 quadrillion tax bracket pay a slightly higher rate.
[If you haven’t read part 1 of beyond cavemen I highly recommend you do so first.]
Today I received another update on insurance legislation and tits effect on me, a 27 year old male.
When it comes to car insurance ads, I have to hand it to the advertising people at Geico. I can repeat their catch-phrase from memory (“Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance”). If you show me a talking gecko, a moron made up like a caveman, or a stack of money with googley-eyes, I think of Geico. I think the gecko is kind of cute. I think the cavemen are stupid beyond all belief. And I’m irritated by the creepy, unwavering stare of “the money [I] could be saving with Geico.” It’s like a Sesame Street version of the Eye of Sauron, whose lidless, fiery gaze scoured the face of Middle Earth. The black tower of Barad-dûr was a bit more sinister than Geico’s stack of $5 bills; but, to be fair, Peter Jackson had a bigger budget. I think.
I’m a guy. I love video games–and I’m not alone. I don’t know if it’s something that’s worked its way into the genome or simply a crime of convenience, but I know a lot of guys who love video games. Advertisers must have picked this up somewhere along the way, because it’s not uncommon to see ads for the 21st century male’s dream job: video game tester.
Most of the time, a single facebook ad catches my attention as potentially fantastic drivel. Sometimes, multiple ads for the same thing provide the requisite irony (cf carrot and stick: paranormal). But here, it’s the juxtaposition that is truly fantastic. These two ads appeared as you see them now, one atop the other; a monument to the laser-precision of targeted advertising in the 21st century.