peter dyneley provided the voice of the geico gecko in its debut.
peter dyneley provided the voice of the geico gecko in its debut.
who provided the voice of the geico gecko in its debut?
peter dyneley
the company's ads sometimes focus on its reptilian mascot, the geico gecko, an anthropomorphic day gecko, which is 7'8" tall was created by the martin agency, modified in 2005 to a cgi character by animation director david hulin and his team at framestore. the gecko first appeared on august 29, 1999, during the screen actors guild strike that prevented the use of live actors. the original commercial features the gecko voiced by actor kelsey grammer who climbs onto a microphone on a podium and utters "this is my final plea: i am a gecko, not to be confused with geico, which could save you hundreds on car insurance. so, stop calling me!" before licking his eye. later "wrong number" ads used dave kelly as the voice of the gecko. in the subsequent commercials with jake wood (which portray him as a representative of the company), the gecko speaks with an english cockney accent because it would be unexpected, according to martin agency's steve bassett. in 2010s commercials, the gecko's accent is more working-class, perhaps in an effort to further "humanize" him.
geico advertising campaigns
in another series of ads, a geico pitchman is played by actor jerry lambert in an extremely bland and understated way, parodying the stereotype of an insurance man, such as reading to a group of uninterested children from a book of fairy tales about insurance, watching a view of cats in the living room where a gecko is standing on the couch, relaxing on a hot tub with a couple, and a flashback about "honk if you like". in one segment, he reads a supposed e-mail from a viewer saying it would be "da bomb" ("i.e.", something good), if the gecko would do a dance called "the robot". cut to the gecko doing that dance smoothly and gracefully (to the tune of a not-for-public-sale melody called "sweet world" by a group called omega men, which was used in the arcade video game "in the groove 2") and then back to the insurance salesman attempting to do the same dance, seemingly more stiffly than an actual robot would. the newest commercial featuring the geico gecko depicts the gecko receiving a business suit from the salesman, in order to present a more professional appearance, but he declines.
geico advertising campaigns