Geico is a US-based insurance coverage firm well-known for its Cockney gecko mascot. Valve is a US-based videogame firm that made a pair of puzzle video games starring a deranged, malevolent AI. Have you ever ever puzzled what would occur if the 2 of them got here collectively? In fact you have not, as a result of why would they, proper?
Properly, they did. Earlier this month, Geico launched a brand new commercial entitled “The Gecko Visits Portal,” and that is precisely what it’s: The gecko has one way or the other wound up within the Aperture Science labs, and he is in search of assist to get out—from GlaDOS. In fact, the villainous machine is reluctant to supply help, and issues rapidly go awry in a style that may little doubt be acquainted to anybody who’s performed Portal—however not earlier than cash is saved!
It is a bizarre, very random crossover that apparently occurred out of the blue: Valve mentioned Geico reached out a few collaboration, and Valve went for it. However randomness is form of what Geico does. Different current advertisements for the corporate are based mostly on machine studying, an Previous West shootout gone unsuitable, sea turtles, and an Animal within the attic. For my cash it is not fairly as much as the extent of Allstate’s “Mayhem” marketing campaign, but it surely’s efficient: I will not be all in favour of shopping for insurance coverage, but it surely’s all so damned unusual that I really feel compelled to look at.
This truly is not Geico’s first videogame collaboration: It additionally not too long ago did an Offended Birds crossover.
I’s attention-grabbing that Geico seems to be concentrating on older video games for its advertisements—Offended Birds debuted in 2009, smack in between Portal (2007) and Portal 2 (2011). My guess is that it is a demographic factor: Individuals out there for insurance coverage lately in all probability aren’t gaming as a lot as they had been a decade in the past, and that is the place the nostalgia lies.
Oh, and in case you had been questioning, that’s in actual fact Ellen McLain, the true voice of GlaDOS, within the advert.
