GEICO Gecko

The mascot who was only supposed to fill a gap. GEICO's gecko debuted in 1999, when a Screen Actors Guild strike kept live actors out of commercials, and the pun on a name people kept mispronouncing did the rest. He was meant to be temporary and was kept on. What makes this campaign worth studying is how quietly it evolved. The gecko began with a posh accent that drifted into a Cockney style, and several actors have voiced him, from Kelsey Grammer early on to Jake Wood today. A throwaway pun became a polite, slightly put-upon spokesman, and GEICO has built more than a quarter of a century of advertising around him.