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Geico Gecko - Six-inch green
computer-animated lizard seen on a series of successful Geico Car Insurance
commercials at the beginning of the Millennium.
In the earlier commercials,
pesky phone callers were confusing the Gecko's phone book listing with the Geico
Car Insurance Company. Speaking in a British accent (Dave Kelly), the irritated
Gecko voiced his discontent with the intrusive consumers looking for cheaper
insurance. Actor Kelsey Grammer supplied the original voice for the Geico Gecko
in the first ad. English actor Jake Wood, 33, supplies the Cockney accent in the
latest batch of Geico commercials.
Later, in the series of ad, the Gecko decides that if he can't beat 'em, he'll
just try to join the company as an official mascot. At the Geico audition, the
Gecko lizard meets the former Taco Bell Chihuahua mascot who steps out of forced
retirement to also audition for the role of Geico mascot. When the dog sees the
Geico lizard as potential competition, he says "Oh, great, a talking gecko."
The Geico Gecko character was created by the Martin Agency, a Richmond, Virginia
based ad firm. The latest Gecko animation is supplied by Framestore, a New
York-based company.
The Gecko debuted in 1999 for Geico, a Berkshire Hathaway-owned insurance
company based in Washington, D.C. The tagline for the Geico commercials reads:
"Fifteen minutes could save you 15 percent or more on car insurance.
 TRIVIA
NOTE: A follow-up of very funny 30-second Geico ads appeared in 2001. The
series of three spots were called "Squirrel", "Car Pool" and "Wuxia." The
"Squirrel spot (written by Joe Lawson and Raymond McKinney and art directed by
Tye Harper) shows a couple of squirrels playing chicken on a country road that
causes a car to swerve off the road and crash. Thrilled with their results, the
giggling squirrels give each other a high-five for surviving the ordeal.
The "Car Pool" spot (created by copywriter Anne Marie Hite and art director
Clairborne Riley) featured a plump working mother who apparently has no car
insurance. As she arrives at her daughter's school on foot pretending to be a
car, the mother honks an air horn while displaying a bumper sticker on her rear
end that reads: "My child is an honor student. When a youthful bystander asks
"Is that your mother?", the woman's mortified child claims not to know her.
And a spot called "Wuxia" (written by Joe Lawson and Raymond McKinney and Art
Directed by Tye Harper) parodies the Ang Lee movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden
Dragon (2000) as salesmen perform aerobatic martial arts moves while they
process insurance paperwork. When a policy holder inquires "How does Geico
process my claims so quickly?", an insurance man replies "Ancient martial arts
secret from the Wuxia (an ancient text)."
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