Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Geico Gecko Wheatfield Ad

This commercial has been running for awhile now, where the Geico gecko walks through this field of amber waves of grain, running his little hand over the sheaves of wheat, pondering his mission to communicate the potential savings to millions of Americans out there who could use the extra money while still getting reliable car insurance coverage. But the thing this scenario reminds me of is that scene in Gladiator where Russell Crowe walks through the golden wheat fields, running his hand over the wheat sheaves, as he lays dying. (At least, that’s what I think happens; it’s been so long since I’ve seen that movie.)

So that got me wondering, are they going to kill off the talking gecko character? Oh, but then he just walks to a curb next to a boulevard (or some such thoroughfare), and he stops. They don’t even have him get run over by a car! (What a tease!) Or maybe they’re setting us all up for a cliffhanger in the next ad? (Nope, sorry: he survives the Texas bar ad too. And that's particularly shameless after they just showed him almost get run over in the Brooklyn Bridge ad! Plus, there's the new one where he almost gets run over by a street car in San Francisco! Are they teasing us here or what? Or maybe these ads are flashbacks from his life flashing before his eyes as he dies, having been accidentally trampled to death on the Texas bar dance floor, etc., but we don't find out about it until the next ad...?)

Here’s the teasing tale: