He was awesome and we all loved him.
Then, starting not too long ago, less and less Gecko commercials were being made and aired and were replaced with a new character in a new advertising campaign.
Some cash with 75cent plastic googly eyes from the local Joann's Fabric Store glued on top. That is it. It doesn't talk, it doesn't move, it is literally something someone made for no more than a dollar not including the actual cash used in the 'character'. Assuming it's even real. I will call him Faily.
Aside from the low tech, low budget nature of Faily, we have the overall commercials themselves. One that is shown the most, is one where a couple is having dinner in a Chinese restaurant. The woman looks over and Faily is sitting on a chair at the next table. The setting reminds me almost eerily of the cheap Chinese place down the street from here. Pink vinyl chairs, bare walls, ugly interior. She is supposed to be flirting with Faily, when the waiter comes over and tell her, "That's the money you could be saving with Geiko." A bastardized snippet of the 1980's band Rockwell's Somebody's Watching Me is played, tight shot on Faily, commercial over.
My educated guess is these commercials with Faily cost roughly $10 to make, not including whatever the actors get paid. Whereas our oldtime favorite, the character that made Geiko an advertising king, is a completely CGed character which of course requires significantly more money and time and creativity.
High cost is not a guarantee of something being good, but this new Faily advertising campaign is terrible. It's not funny, it's not creative; it's mediocre at best. Most of Geiko's ad campaigns are great, some better than others, but Faily fails. Miserably. I am not sure whether the same firm that did the Gecko and Cavemen came up with this, but whoever did should be shot. Or at least fired.
So if anything is a hint towards even some of the biggest corporations trying to pinch pennies, look no further than our dear Faily.
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