Ashlee Samuels

Rhetorical Analysis: Draft 1

July 26, 2011

Giggling Gecko

Geico insurance company uses many different tactics to persuade buyers to use their insurance companyproduct. Many of their tactics include humorous situations with cavemen, a talking gecko and rhetorical questions. Many people argue that repetition strategies that involve varying plots will be more difficult to comprehend, and thus less persuasive than plot strategies (Chang). Geico goes against this by using narratives that are not repetitious.

An article on TheFinincialBrand.com says that Geico goes about advertising in the wrong way. They have so many different faces of Geico that people will get confused[AP1], Geico responds by saying; all of our faces have a “punch” that they bring to the ads. They have a goal for every tactic used.

The first approach is the use of the The Geico Gecko. He first appeared in 1999, in his first television debut he pleads for people confusing “gecko” with “GEICO” to stop calling him[AP2]. This was the beginning of Gecko’s “15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance” pitch that we have all heard millions of times. Next, came the cavemen. These metro sexual [AP3]cavemen have somehow eluded extinction while being offended by Geico’s slogan, “So easy a caveman can do it.” Number three on the list is Kash. In 2008 Geico aired a series of ads featuring paper baned stacks of money with a pair of big eyes on top. Kash never says anything, he just sits and stares at people. The message from Kash, “this is the money you could be saving on your car insurance if you switch to Geico.”Another tactic that they focus on is asking, “could switching to geico save you 15% or more on your car insurance?” Then following up with a rhetorical question: “Does Charlie Daniels play a mean fiddle?”[AP4]

Their agency’s rationale has given different assignments to multiple creative teams, along with instructions “to tell multiple distinct narratives that highlight various aspects of the brand.” They say that “once upon a time, an ad was about a company’s unique selling position. But people can now accept more complex brands,” says Mike Hughes, the president of the ad agency used by Geico. The agency believes it has found a better way to do branding, perhaps even a new media strategy altogether. The editor of this article commented on it and said, “15 minutes can save you 15%” is certainly one of Geico’s brand messages. But they have others as well. They have ads talking about how using Geico’s website to save money is “so easy a caveman can do it.” There are ads reminding people that Geioco insures motorcycles, RVs and other toysmotor vehicles. They have ads for their roadside assistance program. What Geioco has decided is that it is okay to use a different creative vehicle for each message it wants to convey.

According to AllBusiness.com with a combination of national cable TV, spot TV and national and local radio used to reach the target audience of adults 24-64 years old. When Geico started using the humorous ads in 1998 telephone inquiries that year exceeded phone levels by 44 percent, this made 1998 the most successful year in Geico’s 62-year history, for the fifth year running. Geico is trying to get people who are fed up with the hassle of long phone calls and expensive bills to see that they are quick and easy and inexpensive.

Out of the four strategies I mentioned above I am going to discuss one rhetorically because I think it works best. The adds used by Geico have involve a lot of vulnerability, but one set of ads in particular uses a very satirical frame; the cavemen. The author is taking a very normal situation, getting an online quote for your Geico insurance, which is very easy, and exaggerating it by saying that “its so easy a caveman could do it.” We know that cavemen do not really use the computer, because they do not exist, but the unspoken assumption is that cavemen are dumb, uneducated, and have never used a computer. So saying that a caveman could do it means that for somebody in today’s society who has been educated, grown up around computers and is fairly smart, getting your online Geico quote is going to be one of the easiest things you have ever done.

I think this is a very good marketing strategy. Being on the phone or computer for hours trying to figure out the best insurance for you and your family can be exhausting. Hearing these commercials could be a sigh of relief that there is an easier way to do it. Angie D. responded to an article used to describe all of the different strategies by saying “I can recall pretty much every single Geico ad mentioned. But will I actually buy Geico insurance? The answer is, probably not. To me they don’t take themselves seriously enough to convince me that they’ll take my accident seriously. Obviously something is working for them though. Kudo’s on doing something different.” She appreciates what they are doing but she does not think it is enough to make her switch to Geico. SRG says, “It is interesting how their strategy goes against every branding rule we’ve ever learned, but it does seem to work for them. Many of their commercials seem utterly stupid upon first viewing (cavemen, Kash) but end up growing on me.” This person does not ever say that they use or would switch to Geico, but they do say that they think that their strategy works for them.

Geico goes against what a lot of advertising experts say is the correct way to use advertising, but it seems to work for them. I am not saying that when a person hears or sees a Geico advertisement they are going to immediately go change their insurance to Geico, but when somebody is thinking about switching their insurance Geico will always be on their mind because they hear, and see the humorous advertisements that Geico produces. [AP5]

Work Cited

Chang, Chingching. Journal of Advertising, Fall2009, Vol. 38 Issue 3

GEICO’s Crazy Ad Strategy Breaks the Rules." The Financial Brand: Marketing Insights for Banks & Credit Unions. 22 Jan. 2010. Web. 26 July 2011. < com /9663/ geico-gecko-caveman-kash-tv-commercials/>.

Interstitials | Business Solutions from AllBusiness.com. 1 Nov. 1999. Web. 26 July 2011. <

[AP1]Different faces as in different marketing ploys or different types of insurance?

[AP2]revise order of words

[AP3]Are they really metrosexual? I never noticed that

[AP4]I hate that greasy douche with the slicked back hair in those commercials AHHH!

[AP5]Great paper with solid concrete details and evidence. The only critique I have is that you did not really address the part of the prompt which asks us to determine the rhetorical strategies used by the author.