REPTILE ADVERTISING MASCOTS

    Budweiser Frogs - In the 1990s Budweiser beer introduced three croaking swamp frogs who snatched containers of Budweiser beer by zapping them with their sticky tongues or by enlisting an alligator in their plan to liberate a case of beer from a nearby cabin. Each frog croaked a single syllable that together spelled out "Bud-weis-er." The initial frog campaign  was criticized because some felt the alcohol ads were targeted at kids. Anheuser-Busch denied the allegations. In 1998 during Super Bowl XXXII ad spots "Budweiser's Bad Day To Be A Frog" (created by Goodby,  Silverstein and Partners) Budweiser introduced Louie and Frank the Budweiser Lizards, a pair of green-with-envy speaking lizards who contemplated rubbing out their amphibian competitors. The 1999 Super Bowl XXXIII continued the frog-hating adventures of Louie & Frank in a series of three ads spots, one of which showed the frogs "literally" giving Louie the lizard a tongue lashing (as payback for the lizards plan to electrocute the frogs).  Frank and Louie later  teamed with a ferret who communicated in short, muffled squeaks.  

    Geico Gecko - Green computer-animated lizard seen on a series of successful Geico Car Insurance commercials at the beginning of  the Millennium. In the earlier commercials, phone callers were confusing the Gecko's phone book listing with the Geico company. Speaking in a British accent (Dave Kelly), the Gecko voiced his discontent with the intrusive consumers looking for cheaper insurance. Later in the series, in a crossover 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 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 Gecko debuted in ads in 1999 for Geico, a Berkshire Hathaway-owned insurance company based in Washington, D.C. 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. Happy at 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)." The tagline for the Geico commercials reads" Fifteen minutes could save you 15 percent or more on car insurance."     
 

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