Episode 30: The Truth About Hump Day

Advertising History
Written By Emily Rask

Every Wednesday, GEICO's camel Caleb walks through an office asking coworkers if they know what day it is. That ad turned hump day into a mascot moment in 2013, but the phrase already had decades of history behind it - a 1959 newspaper citation, a summer camp origin traced by linguists, and a persistent DuPont water-cooler legend that's never actually been verified.

This episode traces hump day from Old English through a debunked whale-hunting myth, into the psychology behind why the middle of anything feels hardest (a 2011 study showing motivation follows a U-shape, not a hill), and into the mystery of why GEICO's original 16-million-view upload vanished from YouTube without explanation.

Emily Rask
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Episode 31: I Need To Talk To You About Your Extended Warranty
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Episode 29: How the Kardashians Ruined Your Brain