Does Wes Anderson Get Royalties on This?

September 18th, 2007 by Damon

-The kid looks and sounds like Dirk Calloway
-He’s precocious like the Tenenbaums or Max Fischer
-His racing uniform has a European, 1960s look about it, like everything in Rushmore
-While the fact that he wears a uniform in daily life conforms to athletes-as-pitchmen conventions, it also matches Anderson’s movies (all four of which involved uniforms for the protagonists)
-Ari and Uzi race go-carts with Royal in The Royal Tenenbaums.

I would’ve thought this too obvious to point out, but when I googled all sorts of permutations of Geico, Wes Anderson, go-cart, and Wallace (the Nascar dude), I didn’t find any results. Maybe I’ve just watched too much Wes Anderson.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 18th, 2007 at 9:47 am and is filed under Wes Anderson, Cinema. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

6 Responses to “Does Wes Anderson Get Royalties on This?”

  1. Jon Says:
    September 19th, 2007 at 11:46 am

    Are you saying this isn’t a Wes Anderson-written/directed commercial?!! It screams of his artistry, and the boy’s monologue sounds as it it could be taken directly from the Royal Tenenbaums script.

  2. Damon Says:
    September 19th, 2007 at 11:47 am

    I don’t think he did. At least, I couldn’t find evidence of it through any web searches. But maybe I just don’t know where to look.

  3. Trapper John Says:
    October 1st, 2007 at 11:23 am

    I’m with you man — not surprising, as I came here from a Google search that I imagine was not dissimilar to the ones that you were conducting.

  4. Lauren Says:
    October 3rd, 2007 at 9:55 pm

    I know what you mean. I’ve thought these commercials looked rather Wes Andersonesque since I first saw it, but I can’t find any evidence anywhere to support it.

  5. Buck Says:
    October 11th, 2007 at 1:59 pm

    I just want to agree with the rest of you. I was looking to see if this commercial was directed by him as well. We can’t be the only people thinking this is either a work of Wes or an Anderson “knock-off”. The thing is it does not steal from just one of his films - it has bits and pieces from his overall work. If he is not getting props for it, he should be flattered to be so immitated.

  6. JG Says:
    April 8th, 2008 at 6:04 am

    One more—saw the commercial, immediately did a search for “Wes Anderson” and “GEICO commercial.”

    If it’s not Wes Anderson, it’s a damn good imitation.

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