Geico's Gecko Eases Stress for a Football Team and Space Aliens

Our galaxy’s facing imminent destruction. Sounds like a job for … Geico’s gecko?

The lovable lizard returns today in fresh spots from The Martin Agency. They cast the mascot as an “Ease Specialist,” tasked with smoothing out rough situations. And he’s got all the answers.

Alas, his expertise applies almost exclusively to insurance. Still, everything turns out OK, more or less,

Not the most groundbreaking concept, but better than some Star Wars installments we could name.

And check out little G’s stirring locker room pep talk:

So, which one’s dating Taylor Swift?

Anyway, the reptile’s return is always welcome, and more commercials will follow. 

Leveraging iconic assets in fun ways almost always pays off for brands. Consumers eat it up: Look, it’s the Geico gecko! I want my baby back baby back ribs! 

It’s an easy way to soften our ad-hardened hearts.

“The gecko could have been the ‘Ease Specialist’ in everyday situations, but to help the work break through even more, we decided to up the entertainment ante,” Martin GCD Neel Williams tells Muse. “We wanted audiences to feel like they’ve been dropped into the middle of a hit movie or series, and then, bam…wait, this is a Geico commercial? This surprise factor makes Geico’s messages easier to remember.”

The creatives especially enjoyed making the detailed space opera sendup.

“Those prosthetics were intense, especially the alien who kept having to get his tongue dyed with a paintbrush,” recalls agency senior art director Riley Shine. “He would look so longingly at the craft services, at all the food he was forbidden to eat because of his blue tongue and alien teeth.”

As for the half-time scenario, “One of my favorite touches was the motto of the football team, which you can barely see in the background: ‘Participation Is as Good as Winning.’ That and their Fighting Loris mascot pretty much sums it up: this is a team that does not leave it all on the field,” says Roger Hailes, also a senior art director.

Dan Opsal of Hungry Man directed the campaign, which will run across TV, digital and social.