“Why does Geico have three different spokespeople? They have the cavemen, the lizard, and then the stack of money with the eyeballs!” “And the fake Rod Serling guy!” So observed Matt Damon and Tina Fey way back in 2010 in an episode of 30 Rock which now, if anything, seems too tolerant and insufficiently outraged. The Geico situation has only grown more dire in the ensuing five years, with dozens upon dozens of spots featuring an ever-growing variety of characters and catchphrases. Back in 2010, for instance, Damon and Fey had yet to witness the arrival of the wise-cracking “Humpday” camel or that “free range” hobo chicken who rides the rails to the wistful sounds of Roy Orbison. Even the once-innocent Dora The Explorer has recently been absorbed, Borg-style, into the Geico collective. It has gotten to the point where, if Geico ads were physical pieces of discarded waste, they would form a massive garbage reef which would be visible from space. And this is not to mention the slew of clearly Geico-inspired advertising from a slew of other insurance companies (State Farm, Nationwide, Farmers).
Standing in rare opposition to the Geico behemoth is Magnalux Pictures’ Dominick Nero, who recently gave the world a supercut of Wes Anderson supercuts and who seems determined to use his video-editing skills as a force for positive change in the digital world. Toward this end, Nero has created a minute-and-a-half-long video montage entitled “Every F*cking Geico Ad Played At Once.” His motivation is simple: “I created this video as a criticism of Geico’s never-ending bombardment of our digital adspace.” Indeed, it is now difficult to survive even a day, or even an hour, online without seeing a Geico ad. Nero used, by his estimate, “close to 300 videos” in creating the supercut, in which the screen keeps dividing and subdividing like the brooms in Fantasia to make room for more and more Geico ads. The effect is bolstered by using Raymond Scott’s “Powerhouse” on the soundtrack, as that composition has frequently been used in cartoons to denote factories and assembly lines. As disheartening as “Every F*cking Geico Ad” is, some viewers will no doubt use the supercut as an opportunity to relive fond, insurance-related memories, sighing in fond recognition at old ad campaigns. Oh, hey, it’s that adorable talking pig! Remember him? Meanwhile, those trying to spot celebrity cameos should keep their eyes peeled for Peter Frampton, Charo, Terry Bradshaw, and James Lipton. Geico: It’s what they did.
Every F*cking Geico Ad Played at Once from Magnalux Pictures on Vimeo.