GEICO commercial starring Andres Cantor

All Things Chess
1

GEICO commercial starting the week of June 27, 2010: Can Andres Cantor (the famed Telemundo futbol sportscaster) make any sport exciting?
youtube.com/watch?v=hkDMraeJoQ4

Cut to two chessmasters seated atop a podium, with a large demonstration board behind them. The two are quietly thinking but Cantor provides his frantic Spanish play-by-play. As one reaches out to make a move, he crescendos into his famous call: “GOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAALLLLLLL!!!”

Hmm, I wonder if GEICO would be willing in the future to run an overlay displaying the words “NATIONAL CHESS DAY OCTOBER 9TH”…

2

I thought it was a pretty funny commercial, although knowing Geico, they’ll air it until everybody’s sick of it.

3

Exactly! :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:

4

I see GEICO ads nearly every day, I have yet to see this one run.

I would have thought they would run it during the World Cup, which is winding down at this point, with just four matches left.

5

Saw it on TV for the first time today 7/8/10

6

I saw it aired during the Rachel Maddow Show last night.

7

I just saw it on AMC, so it’s obviously in the rotation now.

8

Maybe we could get Geico to sponsor National Chess Day. They sponsor other sporting events. We would be sooooo cheap in comparison to a golf tournament or a race car. They could even set up an “even a caveman …” commercial related to chess.

I guess the annoyed GM in the commercial is supposed to represent Kasparov. Which would be considered worse: a cellphone ringing in a tournament room or Andres Cantor yelling “Goal!”? BTW will we have to have an ADM and a rulebook change concerning vuvuzela’s? Maybe it could replace 14H.

9

This ad reminds me of the video for Chess Club that parodied the movie Fight Club. While funny and very entertaining, I also think these kinds of things could be used to promote chess, especially in a high school environment.

youtube.com/watch?v=R3rryxkgx9g

10

Sigh. I just got a chance to look at the Geico commercial more closely. White has two white square bishops. They are on e2 and f1. No goooooooooal! They should have asked the lizard how to set up the pieces.

11

In the immortal words of Homer Simpson:

[size=200]D’oh!!![/size]

12

Shouldn’t that be no gooooooooooooooood!!!

13

How do you know white didn’t reach a white queening square with a pawn and under-promote, and then move that bishop back to his side of the board?

Perhaps an illegality occurred more than 10 moves ago and it’s too late to change it.

I will also point out that in my chess classes, I often see 2 bishops on the same color. My students never seem to remember how that happened.

Maybe Andres Cantor isn’t quite ready to cover top level play yet.

14

:laughing: :laughing:

And maybe, it was a game of random chess or bughouse (other players not visible in frame)… :question: