Gocompare.com "unlike any other financial publication you've ever read". In June 2009 the company launched an advertising campaign featuring a fictional Italian tenor called Gio Compario (pronounced: Jeo Campario) played by Wynne Evans. The advertisements feature 'Gio' singing the 'Go Compare' tune (inspired by Over There) in various locations, and was voted as the most irritating advertisement of both 2009 and 2010. In direct response to this reaction, Go Compare deliberately subverted the campaign in July 2012 by running a series of adverts where celebrity guests such as Sue Barker, Jimmy Carr, Stuart Pearce, Ray Mears, Louie Spence and Stephen Hawking
The Adverts and an appearance on "Top of the Pops", the Adverts became big news. Observers focused on frontman Smith and bassist Gaye Advert. Reviewers noted Smith's songwriting ability. He was said to have "captured the spirit of the times few contemporaries could match". Another reviewer described Smith as the band’s "raging heart, spitting out the failsafe succession of songs which still delineate punk’s hopes, aspirations and, ultimately, regrets". In contrast, Gaye Advert's reputation was more fleeting. She was "one of punk’s first female icons". Her "photogenic" looks, "panda-eye make-up and omnipresent leather jacket defined the face of female punkdom until well