Say what you will about GEICO (is there something to say?), but the insurance company certainly knows how to diversify their advertisements, bombarding the public with memorable, original concepts. In the company's newest campaign, GEICO has focused on a concept that is becoming a YouTube tradition: Skipping those pesky ads that play before the video you actually want to see. It seems the marketing folks found a solution to that issue, exemplified by this mind-vexing family dinner. You can check out the interesting ad, below.
If you thought that the team members on The Walking Dead were the only ones who could add a demented dimension to “Spaghetti Tuesdays every Wednesday,” then prepare to be proven wrong. Displaying a passiveness that would probably give the Dog Whisperer, Cesar Millan a heart attack, this seemingly wholesome smile-filled family dinner gets abruptly paused, allowing this finagling Fido to sloppily carry out every animal inclination that pleases it to disastrous effect. Yet, while the technical execution of the illusion is purposefully weak, it’s still kind of trippy in the way the dog invades the dinner table while the family remains as still as possible, struggling to maintain their grinning straight faces. It’s a brilliantly done piece.
The company’s latest campaign is unified under the theme, “Unskippable.” Seemingly acknowledging that when it comes to those pesky ads that tend to play before YouTube videos, people often and consistently use the “skip” button, dismissing the ads before they even get started. However, GEICO decided to utilize a strategy to combat this practice, by ending the ads BEFORE they could be skipped, concluding in what appears to be an awkward still shot like at the end of an old-school sitcom, but in actuality, the laws of physics and, in the case above, nature, are still well in effect.
Epic elevator handshake? Or a fracture in the space-time continuum?
A shared neurological disorder amongst a cleanup crew? Or an innovative test in self-aware vacuums?
Legendary high-five? Or has the strength of this bromance broken the Earth's gravitational pull?
Whether it’s cockney-accented geckos, cavemen with chips on their shoulder, annoying talking pigs, or a variety of other topes, GEICO’s advertising has managed to keep its name in the ether, despite the fact that most of the commercials themselves are more memorable than the company they’re meant to represent. However, it seems to be working for them, so who are we to argue?
If we know GEICO commercials, which we do, then it’s likely that these are just the tip of the conceptual iceberg of what is to come from these kings of nuanced, satirical advertising.
