The Geico Lizard A little known star on the American side of the Atlantic until he was signed as the central figure for the Geico commercials in 1999, Day Gecko has become an overnight sensation in the world of advertising. Gecko is originally from the United Kingdom and began his television career when he signed himself to The Martin Agency. Work for a small green lizard mascot was plentiful in the UK so Gecko decided to take his chances in America and traveled to the USA from Liverpool in 1993 aboard a container ship, where, upon arrival he found minor roles with the CGI Framestore CFC. In 1999 when the Screen Actors Guild went on strike and the use of human actors was prevented Gecko quickly stepped into the breach and was instantly hired as the representative of the Geico Insurance Company. Initially, Gecko’s voice was not heard and was dubbed in by the voice of Kelsey Grammer. Gecko’s first assignment with the company was to plead with phone callers to the company to stop calling him instead of the insurance company with their names being so similar. As time went by Gecko convinced the Geico insurance company to use his voice which sounds amazingly similar to UK actor Jake Wood! Although Gecko has a rather ‘working class’ accent it is seen as endearing to prospective customers and humanizes Gecko! As Gecko’s personality and stardom grew he was seen adorning 20 foot billboards in the state of New York, making radio commercials and appearing with several lesser known actors. Although Gecko is the probably the best known of the Geico Insurance company’s actors they do from time to time employ other fairly well known celebrities but this has never caused Gecko to fear for his fame and standing in the world of celebrity. Geico commercials use a variety of celebrities such as Little Richard, Joan Rivers, Peter Frampton and Burt Bacharach all who are seen spoofing themselves but have never attained the same affection in the hearts of the insurance purchasing public in the USA as Gecko.
Recently, an article appeared on Brokennewz.com relating to the life of Gecko which spoke of months of lobbying by the League of United Latin Americans Citizens (LULAC) to have the Geico reptile deported. Their claims are that Gecko is believed to have entered the USA some 15 years ago after he stowed away from Liverpool to New York. Facing daunting obstacles such as race, color, and speaking very proper English, the little green icon has lived the American dream for the past 5 years. The personable Gecko is said to be red with anger over what he says is a 'hate crime'. "I came to this country with nothing. I worked jobs no American reptile was willing to do. I've never taken a dime of government assistance and now I'm being forced out of this country because a bunch of Washington panty-waists wont stand up to a bunch of invading Mexicans", said the furious reptile. "What about my family? At last count I have more than 2200 anchor lizards in my family tree. Would LULAC have treated me this way if I had taken on the color brown"? he said. When asked why he never applied for citizenship, the gecko said, "Well luv, I must have tried at least 20 times to apply for citizenship and each time I risked my life in doing so". "Every time I went to the Immigration Office some woman would scream and then everyone would try to smash me brains in. On at least 3 occasions by tail was severed from my body and I had to regenerate another one. You can't imagine the embarrassment I faced in my community as a tail-less lizard?" he said. The gecko said he has never participated in any pro-immigration demonstrations. He adds that he loves his country of origin but he would never fly the British flag here in the states. "I'm a lean, green, lizard machine and the next time you see me I'll literally be red, white, and blue. Let's see LULAC do that"! he said. ABB | 
