The current GEICO ad campaign, “It’s what you do,” has already scored an ethics foul; the latest one is less substantive. Nonetheless, it is in the increasingly common category of “They just didn’t care,” which is a subset of disrespect and lack of diligence. Besides, it involves a great American song.
In the GEICO ad featuring Peter Pan annoying former classmates at a high school reunion ( the kid playing Peter is terrific), the spot concludes with Peter entertaining the class while flying over their heads with a mike and singing, “You Make Me Feel So Young,” a 1946 classic composed by Josef Myrow, with lyrics written by Mack Gordon. It begins,
You make me feel so young.
You make me feel as though (alt. “like”) spring has sprung.
And every time I see you grin,
I’m such a happy individual.
But for some damn reason, Peter sings,
You make me feel so young.
You make me feel so spring has sprung..
..which isn’t even English, and definitely isn’t the lyric. How hard would it have been to fix this? GEICO just couldn’t be bothered, so the song is misrepresented in its first widespread media us in decades.
Here’s the song sung the right way, Peter, you little snot:
UPDATE: See here.
Ethics Alarms 
“You little snot” perfectly sums up how I feel about that commercial. The actor is so good he makes me want to smack his smug little face.
“You don’t look a day over 70, am I right?”
WHAM!!!
Exactly!
Being 6 months over 70, myself, I bristle every time I see/hear that ad. WHAM! doesn’t start to describe my reaction.
I foresee “Peter” cast as Tony in a prequel to “The Sopranos”. Elle Fanning can play his future wife with Gene Hackman as the warden of the reform school.
You’re really presenting Sinatra as an exemplar of getting lyrics right? Sinatra?
Good point. Though he’s pretty accurate on this occasion.
Cuckoo and scooby doo!
Yeah, yeah, you’re right. Although nobody who hears that thinks that’s anything but Frank being Frank (“If you are Frank Sinatra, that’s what you do”), and not the lyricist being insane or illiterate. Frank’s still regarded as the auteur for that song. I picked a live version where he fooled around, but now I guess I should default to a recording.
See latest post!
Geico is mismanaged, at least when it comes to customer service. My co-worker spent weeks trying to get them to cover the hail damage to her car. After this letter was received Geico suggested she change the claim to vandalism and then they would pay. I mean, What the fuck?!
https://twitter.com/farkleup/status/672184694553767937
Finally, after many tears shed in frustration, Geico agreed to pay her hail damage claim. Only thing I can figure is Geico management deliberately denied claims like this because Las Cruces was smacked by two destructive hail storms in a two week period. Cars everywhere were damaged. So I assume Geico was inundated with claims.
Warren Buffett loves Geico. I don’t. http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/12/13/3-charts-that-show-why-warren-buffet-loves-geico.aspx