New Geico ads raise company to pop-culture status

Geico, known for its wacky, postmodern TV commercials, has done it again.

The car-insurance company that brought us misunderstood cavemen and fake late-night ads for super glue has broken new ground in the age-old personal testimonial ad format.

The new ads pair real Geico customers with quirky celebrities. The results are as bizarre as any we’ve seen from the Martin Agency, the Virginia-based advertising firm whose offbeat ads have given Geico a rarified position in the pop-culture universe.

The ads picture a real Geico customer relating, deadpan, an account of how the company was there in a time of need – while a famous entertainer translates the customer’s words.

“Denise Bazlk is a real Geico customer, not a paid celebrity,” we are told in voiceover. “So to help tell her story we hired a celebrity.”

The celebrity is pop icon Little Richard, sipping coffee at Bazlk’s side at her kitchen table. Without cracking a smile, Bazlk describes how, on her way to Thanksgiving dinner, she struck a deer on the road, disabling her car. “Help me!” Little Richard shrieks. “Somebody, help me!”

In another ad, Brenda Coates, seated on the edge of a piano bench, describes getting rear-ended by a Geico customer and how her dealings with Geico were so positive that she switched insurance companies.

Seated right behind her on the bench is the tuxedo-clad songwriter Burt Bacharach, whose fingers dance across the keys as he croaks in conclusion, “I hope I never … get hit … in the rear … again.”

And in another spot, Charo, the Latina comedian, interprets Geico customer Stanley Smith’s experience with an onslaught of Spanish, English and cartoon voices.

“I love my car like my own wife,” Smith says, to which Charo replies: “He love his car. Que romantico!”

Naturally, the ads (which also can be seen on YouTube.com) have caught the attention of bloggers.

“The execution is so bad on everyone’s part and the absurdity of it makes it hilariously good,” writes Talking TV on austin360blogs.com. “I wish I’d been in the room when the advertising executive sold this idea to Geico.”

Others have reservations.

“The Bacharach ad creeps me out a bit,” posts Joel Keller on adjab.com, commenting on Bacharach’s “spastic” singing.

“I tried Googling to see if he had any health problems, but I couldn’t find anything,” Keller says.

With other testimonial ads, says Steve Bassett, creative director for the Martin Agency, said, viewers often feel uncomfortable – if not contemptuous – because of the inevitable lingering questions: Were these really customers? Could they actually be paid spokesmen?

With the new ads, there is no such question. The “real person” is labeled as such and so is the celebrity spokesperson.

One distinguishing quality of the new ads is the absence of editing. Each spot is shown in one, uninterrupted take.

“When you’ve got a real person and personality levels as different as Burt Bacharach, who’s very laid-back, and someone like Charo, to pair them with nonactors in one take was really challenging,” Bassett said.

A challenge for the real customers was to keep a straight face.

“There was no way you could script Charo,” Bassett said. “At first they would burst out laughing. They couldn’t help themselves.”