Insurance giants GEICO, AFLAC and Progressive aggressively defended their animal-advertising practices yesterday amid reports that the GEICO Gecko, the AFLAC Duck, the Progressive Pig and other high profile insurance industry spokes-animals were being held in appalling conditions at a Biloxi Mississippi compound shared by the companies.
In a joint statement, spokespeople for all three firms vigorously denied that their spokes-animals were being mistreated. “Sometimes, a gecko will crawl into pig dung, just to get warm. It happens,” said GEICO’s Harold Bloomquist. “But our spokes-animals are quite happy.”
Progressive’s Eva Stoneberg added pointedly, ‘You can see in our ads just how happy they are.”
Animal rights activists were having none of it, however. ASPCA spokeswoman Celia Denton talked about the insurance industry’s animal fetish and its impact on the well being of the critters. “It’s bad enough that these little guys have been torn from their native habitats and made to sell insurance,” she said. “Now we find that they’re not even getting hot meals. It’s disgusting.”
Asked if the critters hadn’t brought on their own trouble by being so annoying, Denton bristled. “Sure they’re annoying,” she said, “But so are Flo and the Nationwide guy. Nobody treats them like animals.”
“It’s time to let the Gecko go.”
