intertextuality. compliments of Geico.

Regardless of whether this is my favorite Geico ad (I mean, come on, they've been hitting them out of the park for years now), I have to say that the intertextuality found here is amusing. Parodying 'Reality TV' to sell your car insurance? Hmmm...

If this ad actually was a reality show, the pitch would be:

Two newlyweds begin with "the perfect marriage." However, when they discover that their new home a "Tiny House," and for one year they will have to live in it, things erupt into chaos...and all the drama is taped for your viewing pleasure.

In this commercial, everything is drawing horizontal-intertextuality connections for pretty much every reality show *ever* created.

• The tiny logo in the bottom-left corner that never goes away
• The overly-dramatic announcer and background music
• The cheesy dialogue ("You are SO AWESOME" ???) which exposes that...
• The "contestants" are not necessarily the brightest light bulbs in the box
• Quick-cut shots of crying and general embarrassment

The list of these shows seems never ending: "The Real World"..."The Bachelor"..."Joe Millionaire"...need I go on? The interesting thing about them all is that they all follow the same general formula, in almost every sense of the phrase.

Geico has created an ad that parallels the formula of Reality TV advertising (and of Reality TV itself). Those familiar with this genre of television (myself, for example) can tell you that the plot point of a "Tiny House" isn't really THAT absurd for the category. Of course, if you weren't familiar with Reality TV and this ad's play on it, you'd miss the joke completely. That's because it is a cultural text whose connections can only be interpreted if one is familiar with its existence in the first place.

Also, this ad is an example of a tertiary text because it provides commentary on Reality TV and its place in our cultural text through poking fun at it. Instead of actually advertising for the newest and soon-to-be most popular Reality TV show to hit the airwaves, Geico's purpose for the commercial is to say watching this show (if it actually existed) "...won't help you save on your car insurance." Clever.

If you didn't know any better (and you wouldn't until the end of the ad), you'd think "Tiny House" would be coming on NBC at 8:00 on Wednesdays...