TV Commercial Review
Memorable
Effective
Style
Heart or Humor
Execution
Funny
GEICO unveiled another hilarious advert. This time a couple is excited to share all the great features of the new place they’re renting. There’s just one small problem with clogging in their building.
Clogging is a type of folk dance in which the dancer’s footwear is used percussively by striking the heel, the toe, or both against a floor or each other to create audible rhythms, usually to the downbeat with the heel keeping the beat.
Who are the dancers in this clogging GEICO commercial? See below the cast.
COMMERCIAL CAST:
Woman: Ozioma Akagha
Man: Josh Cheney
Cloggers: Olivia Tucker, Bailey Tucker, Garrett Tucker, Grayson Tucker, Greg Tucker, Maria Tucker
Making fun of Southerners and country people, continues a rude stereotype that seems to be unending. I hate this commercial for that reason.
How is this commercial making fun of Southerners/country people? It is a bit odd that you would draw that conclusion when that inference is not made at any time. If you want to gripe about the commercial poking fun at people who clog, that might be a better source of your displeasure.
This is my reply to ROXANNE KEAN. What I say, is that this advertisement DOES NOT MAKE FUN OF SOUTHERNERS. What I say is that this advertisement DOES NOT MAKE FUN OF COUNTRY PEOPLE. Roxanne, you are wrong. I am a clogger, I received one year of training in clogging, tap dance, and contra dancing, and then I performed for three years with the KICKAPOO CLOGGERS based in Madison, Wisconsin. We performed in the State Capitol building. We performed at a dairy farmer’s convention. We performed at an Oktoberfest celebration in Delavan, WI. We performed at an annual bluegrass festival in Kahoka, MO (Clark County Fairgrounds). We performed at Tinker Cottage, in Rockford, IL. We performed in a parade that went the entire length of State Street in Madison, WI. We also performed at folk festivals at Northland College near Lake Superior, in Wausau, Wi, in Verona, WI, at Mount Horeb, WI, and elsewhere. Roxanne Kean, it is you who is creating the RUDE STEREOTYPE. The rude stereotype that you are trying to create is that clogging is something only for southerners and country people. Please note that clogging originated in England, and some of the steps were adopted from Africans who arrived in America. Roxannne Kean, this is to respectfully suggest that you wake up, and that you need to be more careful about how you are perceiving the world that we live in.
Various types of clogging exist in many cultures, not just the southern US. Numerous European countries have clogging. We call Irish clogging “step dancing”. So, no one is ridiculing Southerners here. Southern clogging likely originates with the many Scottish, Irish and Scots-Irish who settled there. Do some research before you claim “foul”.
Love the commercial. The clogging is together- in rhythm and in heart. Some families are cloggers and others are not. You have to be a clogger to be part of the second floor apartment.
What is the name of the group that does the clogging? They are fantastic! Do they have a YouTube channel? Thanks!!
The Tucker Family from Utah
Who are those very talented cloggers? The commercial is endearing and memorable. Love it!
Um they are tap dancing not clogging!!!
This is to reply to the remark from fellow commenter, Um no that, “Um they are tap dancing not clogging!!!” That is a good point and it is worthy of comment. I took tap dancing from two different teachers, Korby Kehl in Madison, WI and Donna Peckett, also of Madison, WI. Donna Peckett is associated with Broom Street Theater. I have four years of clogging experience, during a a 1-year training period and three years of performing. Here are some differences: (1) Regarding arms, for tap dancing the arm movements can be similar to those in ballet. Tap dancers sometimes make wild, gyrating movements with their arms. For example, I just found a video on YouTube showing a line of female tap dancers (SYNCHOPATED LADIES), and each one looks like an octopus where high voltage electric sparks are being discharged inside their rear end. But in clogging, the arms must remain hanging downwards. (2) Regarding the knees and legs, for tap dancing the knees are kept relatively straight, but in clogging the knees are always kept slightly bent where the result is that the clogger’s head and shoulders have a constant level that is slightly lower, and where the end-result is a comical effect for the clogger. Also, cloggers to a type of step called, a “chug,” but tap dancers do not to the “chug.” (3) For tap dancing, the garb is usually formal. For example, men who do tap dancing sometimes wear a coat and tie, and use a cane or a hat as a prop while dancing. Also for example, girls who tap dance may wear glittery costumes. But for clogging, men and women typically wear peasant clothes. For example, in my group the Kickapoo Cloggers, all of the men wore Missouri riverboatman shirts. In clogging, the women wear long skirts and they do something called, “skirt work.” You don’t see skirt work much in tap dancing women. (4) For tap dancing, any type of music can be used, but rarely or never bluegrass music. But in clogging, bluegrass music is almost always used. Also, tap dancers sometimes sing while dancing, but cloggers never sing while clogging. Taking the above into consideration, the conclusion that is compelled is that the people in the GEICO advertisement are clogging (not tap dancing).
Having spend a good deal of my life growing up in the mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina; I have never seen cloggers or buck dancers dress like the folks in this commercial. However, having lived in Indiana for a couple of decades, the dress is dead-on for the Amish.
Fellow commenter Bill D. is correct, and I did not notice the inaccuracy of the clothes. The dresses work by the women in the GEICO commercial are bulky. Women cloggers cannot efficiently do something called, “skirt work” if the dresses are bulky. Also, the pants worn by the men in the GEICO commercial are more somber-looking than what real cloggers wear (they look like funeral clothes). And so, I agree with the comment by Bill D. about the Amish. Regarding Tennessee, the leaders in my clogging group from Madison, Wisconsin once spent a week in Tennessee at a clogging convention, and their goal was to learn new steps to bring back to teach the rest of us. Eventually, I left Wisconsin for employment in Charleston, South Carolina. I thought that I was going to be in “clogger’s heaven.” But I was wrong. In Charleston, the only kind of clogging that they did was LINE DANCING. Yuck. Nobody did clogging with square dance maneuvers, and nobody there did clogging in a big circle. My years in Charleston were frustrating in this way. I should have tried to find employment in ASHLAND, N.C., which (as is my understanding) is the clogging capital of the known universe.
I enjoyed all of Tom’s posts! I learned a LOT reading them. 🙂
THIS IS MY ALL-TIME FAVORITE COMMERCIAL!! I will stop what I’m doing to watch the cloggers – it has nothing to do with a fondness for insurance – everything to do with humor and genuine TALENT!!
I find clogging fascinating and I find the Geico commercial looking at the lighter side of clogging. A little humor never hurts anyone. After seeing the commercial it prompted me to do a Google search on the cloggers in the commercial. In the process, I ran across this documentary made in 1966 on clogging. If you have even one iota worth of interest in clogging, you will love to see these dancers “in the wild”. I found it most fun watching between minute 3:40 and 7:45. Enjoy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJB_HGdGfic
Has anyone else noticed that the kitchen faucet that’s behind the couple who talks about their clogging problem is facing the wrong way? It’s facing the wall instead of into the sink. I’m thinking it’s some kind of inside joke.
Actually, It’s not facing the wrong way. If you take another look at it, the sink is part of the island that is in the middle of the kitchen (which seperates the dining table from the kitchen and stove which by the way is against the wall)
The kitchen faucet belonging to the couple in the downstairs apartment appears to be part of a free-standing module. This man is standing in the narrow walkway between this module and the wall. And so, although this kitchen faucet does face the wall, it also faces the narrow walkway where the man is standing. In contrast, the kitchen faucet in the upstairs apartment is part of a conventional sink that is located a couple of inches away from the wall.
Thank you Tom. It’s funny – since I wrote in I haven’t seen that commercial on TV (I can watch it here). I see what you’re talking about now. Thanks again.
Now i understand why the cloggers are dressed like the Amish! B/C cloggers typically dress like European / British peasants.
Yesterday, I read DUBLINERS by James Joyce. Actually, this is my second reading of it. The first time was in late 1980, when I moved from Berkeley, CA to Madison, WI. DUBLINERS is a collection of fifteen short stories. I encountered a description that matches the video in GEICO’s advertisement about the clogging problem. This description is in the short story, THE DEAD. The description is about a house with a caretaker, an upstairs where there is a ladies’ dressing room, a pantry, a drawing-room, and snow outside. The story goes: “He looked up at the pantry ceiling, which was shaking with the stamping and shuffling of feet on the floor above, listened to the piano, and then glancing at the girl who was folding his overcoat at the end of the shelf. Tell me, Lily . . . do you still go to school?”
Let’s see it followed with a commercial about loud “pipes” in the basement. I can already hear the bagpipes…lol.
Okay so I just saw this very thing during a football game and I’m hoping it turns up on the internet soon. I am a piper and I might know one of the pipers in the ad I just saw.
Who is the girl with the long ponytail?
Thatis a brilliant idea thought I am bias because I’m 1/2 Scot and I love bagpipers,I have a decal on my car showing a bagpiper saying (Got bagpipes) :O)
Aren’t these commercials a drainage, rodent and boundary issue and not actually people c logging, playing music or neighbors not staying within their own yard?
I agree the clogging family is awesome.
I love this commercial and the woman Roxanne Kean can shove her negativity where the sun dont shine,wot do ye of Irish step dancing of which my youngest daughter is a step dancer and has won several competitions so wot say ye,ye want to try insulting my people and how they dance?