Granted the website Crispin Porter did for Burger King was hailed as one of the best viral marketing websites ever created, the entire “Subservient Chicken” ad campaign was a failure. The commercials of the rock band dressed in chicken suits, the guy on the couch telling his chicken to change clothes, and the “buckin’ chicken” commercial didn’t get the message across. I don’t even know what message that was actually! It strayed completely away from the “Have it Your Way” theme that has been part of Burger King since the 70’s and tried to include some shock value. Only, it fell short on the shock and did not get anyone talking about the ads. Bring back the Lunch Break commercials!

Best – Gecko Interviews from GEICO

How can you top the old car insurance commercials from GEICO? “I just saved a bunch of money on my car insurance by switching to GIECO.” It was drilled into our brains. Kids made punch lines out of the catch phrase on playgrounds around the country. You can’t top that kind of advertising.

The new GEICO commercials are going back to advertising fundamentals: English accents and funny animals. The Gecko has always been the mascot for GEICO, but the Martin Agency is capitalizing on the iconic value the Gecko brings to the company by making him the star of their commercials. Sometimes you don’t even realize what he’s saying. Sometimes you just focus on how real the computerized Gecko looks. And sometimes you just laugh at his accent. We’re Americans. We love funny animals with accents.

But there’s also strategy behind it. We all know the brand because of the past commercials with the catch phrase. Now GEICO is focusing on selling the benefits of the company. They’ve built the Gecko up, and now they want us to follow him. Genius advertising.