The Hump Day Phenomenon Case Study Presentation | Page 6

"Hump Day" as Pop Culture

In terms of John Storey's definitions of popular culture, "Hump Day" falls under two main definitions.

The first is pop culture likened by many. As of October 9th, 2013, the original Geico video on YouTube had 16,141,970 views. This does not take into account the number of times it was seen on its original medium, television. While some no longer find this ad amusing, others inevitably do. Whether the response is positive or negative, the video is nevertheless known and reacted upon.

The second is mass-produced pop culture. Geico has released countless commercials and "Hump Day" was one in many of its own campaign. In the CBS article on the right, Abbey Klaassen expresses just how unusual it is for a commercial to make such an impact. Geico can only survive by making numerous commercials, and so they must be mass-produced for a mass audience. They have mixed success, some disappeering from sight, others going viral--as this one did.

"Hump Day" would be an example of benign mass culture because it turns the mundane office world into the outrageous dream world where coworkers are excited by the day of the week--and are camels.