Geico Insurance has supplemented its Geico Gecko campaign with a series of television commercials featuring real customers alongside professional celebrities, Burt Bacharach, Peter Graves, Don LaFontaine, Little Richard, Charo and Verne Troyer. Voiceover is by D.C. Douglas (Lance Baxter).
Geico, Peter Graves and Caitlin Gardner
Caitlin Gardner is a real person not an actor. So to help tell her story Geico hired an actor, Peter Graves, a man with huge hands and huge gestures.
Gardner: My husband totalled our new SUV on my birthday.
Graves: But you know I still love him.
Gardner: Less than six hours after the accident the Geico claims adjuster was at my house.
Graves: I put on some tangerine lip gloss and answered the door.
Gardner: Geico service turned out to be the best birthday present I could ever want.
Graves: I was one lucky woman.
Voiceover: Geico. Real service. Real savings.
Click on the image below to play the video.
Geico, Don LaFontaine and Paul Sala
Paula Sala is backed up by Don LaFontaine, “that announcer guy from the movies”, who speaks to the accompaniment of stirring movie trailer music and sound effects.
Sala: When the storm hit both our cars were totally under water.
LaFontaine: In a world where both of our cars were totally under water…
Sala: We thought it would take forever to get some help.
LaFontaine: But new wind was about to blow!
Sala: With Geico we had our cheque in two days!
LaFontaine: Payback. This time it’s for real!
Voiceover: Geico. Real service. Real savings. (with a dog barking in the background).
Click on the image below to play the video.
Burt Bacharach and Brenda Coates
Brenda Coates, who works at High Point University in North Carolina, tells the story of a car accident with the help (or hindrance) of singer/songwriter Burt Bacharach, sitting at the piano. See the High Point University story on Brenda’s experience of filming the ad in Hollywood. Responses to the ad have been hot and cold. Some are captivated by the quirky humour expressed in the straight Coates/humorous Bacharach combination. Others are just disturbed by the apparent deterioration of Bacharach’s appearance and behaviour. See comments at Adjab for a sample of responses.
Coates: Last I was rear ended by a Geico customer.
Bacharach: I was hit in the rear
Coates: First thought in my mind was about that funny lizard
Bacharach: Lizard licks his eyeball…
Coates: I was so impressed by how they handled my claim, I switched
Bacharach: I hope that I never get hit in the rear…
Voiceover: Geico. Real service. Real savings.
Click on the image below to play the video.
Burt Bacharach blogs at Huffington Post
Geico, Verne Troyer and Rick Wilcockson
Mini-Me Verne Troyer teams up with real customer Rick Wilcockson to tell the Geico story over a barbecue.
Wilcockson: Originally I switched to Geico to save money. But then I was in an accident.
Troyer: Yeah, that’s right, I was in an accident!
Wilcockson: I got on the phone and called Geico.
Troyer: Yeah, hello! Hey! How’s it going?
Wilcockson: After a few days I had my repair check. It was fantastic.
Troyer: Yeah, I got the check. Got my coffee. It’s my birthday. Fixed my bumper. New tail lights.
Click on the image below to play the Troyer video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zS7vCd8KQIA
Click on the image below to play the Little Richard and Denise Bazik video.
Click on the image below to play the Charo and Stanley Smith video.
Click on the image below to play the The Pips and Tara Guelig video.
Geico Celebrities Credits
The Geico Celebrities campaign was developed at The Martin Agency, Richmond, by creative director Steve Bassett, art director Adam Stockton, copywriter Bob Meagher, agency producer Holly Flaisher and assistant producer Valerie Battenfeld.
Filming as directed by Chris Smith at Smuggler, Hollywood, with director of photography Stefan Czapsky.
Editor was Dick Gordon at Spot Welders, New York, with assistant editor Dahkil Hausif.
Sound was mixed by Mark Harder at McHale at Irving Place, New York. Casting Director at McHale at Irving Place was Erik Sanchez.
Voiceover for the Geico celebrities ads was D.C. Douglas.
Geico Gecko Campaign Overview
Geico Gecko’s New Voice: Jake Wood
Geico Cavemen
Geico Cavemen’s Crib
Geico and Mrs Butterworth
Mashed potatos, graaavy, and ca-ranberry sauce! WOOO HOOO!
YAY.
“so I put on some tangerine lip gloss and answered the door.”
Who believes Burt Bacharach when he sings “I hope I never get hit in the rear again”?
I’m just asking.
The announcer’s pretty sexy, too…
geico is the worst ads i have ever seen in my life.everytime i turn the t.v. on i keep the remote by my side in case geico comes on the t.v. that way i don’t have to watch the worst i ever seen. i can’t believe you would think somebody would buy insurance off geico after watching the trash advertisement you offer. you have been clearly been taken to the cleaners by whoever thought that rubbish up.
Personaly I think they are pretty funny, and Compared to the rest of the Commercials on the T.V. its wonderfull! If I could replace all the Commercials on T.V. w/ Geico Commercials, I would do it.
Think about it:
No profanity
No Annoying Noises
Not Loud
Relativly Short
see you guys are stiil at it. people must have mush between their ears to think these commercials are good. they make me sick, and i can’t wait till smokey crashes his bike and dies.
This has to be the absolute worst advertising campaign currently running. There is nothing clever nor funny about these spots and they just do not flow. The “interpretations” that these personalities give of the customers accounts seldom have anything to do with what the customer is talking about. Absolute garbage. I cringe anytime one comes on.
I think these spots are hysterical! I wish they’d do more. They are certainly more for the sophisticated viewer. The humor is in the whole, not laugh lines. I love them!
I loved those ads. I wish they’d make more!
I loved seeing these spots when this campaign ran. It’s sad that there won’t be any more with Don LaFontaine.
http://blogs.voices.com/voxdaily/2008/09/don_lafontaine_the_legend_lives_no_more.html
Thanks for sharing a variety of the GEICO spots featuring so many great people! Don LaFontaine was a friend of mine and I’m glad to see that you’ve included his commercial with GEICO in your roundup as well.
Best wishes,
Stephanie Ciccarelli
Co-founder of Voices.com
http://www.voices.com
Flattered to be acknowledged in this post! God, I loved doing that campaign. Best voice over gig. Fingers crossed they bring it back!
In the Verne Troyer ad, I think he says I got my “car fixed” not “my coffee”. These are great commercials.
It’s a shame you couldn’t use the REAL Little Richard.
Whazamadda? Did he want too much money to do the spot, or sumpin?