GEICO

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GEICO is a personal lines auto insurance company based in the United States. GEICO stands for Government Employees Insurance COmpany. Despite the name, it was never a government agency but rather a private firm originally founded by Leo and Lillian Goodwin to market auto insurance directly to federal government employees and their families. GEICO was based on the assumption that such persons would constitute a more financially stable and less risky pool of potential insureds than the general public. After real-time access to computerized driving records became available in the 1970s throughout the United States, GEICO gradually began to insure the general public as well.

GEICO generally prefers to deal directly with consumers via the telephone and the Internet, freeing up capital that would otherwise be spent on employing insurance agents in the field. GEICO does, however, market their products through a small number of field agents, most of which are based near military bases. These agents are known as GFRs (GEICO Field Representatives).

GEICO is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway and currently provides coverage for 10 million vehicles owned by 7 million policyholders.

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Commercials

GEICO's advertising strategy incorporates a saturation-level amount of print (primarily mail circulars) and television parody advertisements, as well as radio advertisements. The ads, which are notable for their sheer volume as much as their content, sometimes focus on the company's mascot, the GEICO gecko, created by The Martin Agency and most recently a CGI creature generated by Rhythm and Hues Studios. In the first commercial, where people kept calling the gecko as a wrong number for GEICO, the gecko was given a high-class British accent because it would be unexpected, according to The Martin Agency's Steve Bassett. In current commercials the gecko's accent is more working-class, to further "humanize" him and make him "more accessible and someone you enjoy listening to, some bloke you want to get to know."

Another common theme is misdirection, in which the commercial appears to be about something unrelated, or not even be a commercial, and a person comes to say "I've got great news", but then unexpectedly says "I just saved a bunch of money on my car insurance, by switching to GEICO!". The commercials use a variety of fictional characters such as Speed Racer and professional wrestlers as well as real people such as Tony Little spoofing themselves. An additional theme is where fictional products are promoted, but the plugs end with "But it won't save you any money on car insurance." After the GEICO slogan is heard, the commercials end with "Why haven't you called Geico?" This type of reality-bending in commercials is reminiscent of the Energizer Bunny campaign for batteries which began in the mid-1990s.

In 2005, GEICO began an advertising campaign featuring "cavemen" in a modern setting. In these commercials, a GEICO spokesman tells how signing up for insurance is so easy that a caveman can do it, and ends up offending the cavemen who are still around, either as part of the commercial's production crew or in erudite society.

GEICO also began more parody advertisements such as Japanese idol fan clubs, upcoming fictional Saturday morning cartoons, a cereal commercial with a green extreme panther, and senator election campaign ads. But the plugs end with "But it won't save you any money on car insurance." After the GEICO slogan is heard, the commercials end with "Why haven't you called Geico?"

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