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Julia Winn
Professor Williams
MDST 2000
22 November 2011
GEICO’s “A Bird in the Hand” Commercial: Effective Advertising Influences Audience
On December 28th, 2009, the auto insurance company GEICO launched an advertising
campaign, “Rhetorical Questions,” featuring commercials in which a narrator addresses the
audience in a mock-serious tone, asking them “Could GEICO save you 15% or more on car
insurance?” followed by a ridiculous rhetorical question. One particular version begins with the
standard question and then asks the rhetorical question: “Is a bird in the hand worth two in the
bush?” The commercial proceeds to depict a woman on a fake auction show receiving the
appraisal value of her “bird in the hand” figurine. The appraiser states that the figurine would be
“conservatively worth two in the bush.” In response to this pronouncement, the woman shows
awe and amazement. The commercial ends with the GEICO logo followed by their slogan, “At
GEICO, fifteen minutes could save you 15% or more.” The commercial serves as a witty
advertisement promoting GEICO auto insurance as a cheaper option compared to competitors.
However, though on the surface the commercial’s intent and content seems obvious, deeper
analysis yields more interesting conclusions. Further analysis of this commercial reveals broader
patterns in media, including semiotics’ effect on the decoded meaning of a text, the complexity
of branding, and the ability of media to target a particular audience. This commercial
demonstrates how GEICO’s success stems from their effective advertising campaigns.
GEICO’s “A Bird in the Hand” commercial can be examined to understand how
semiotics affects a viewer’s interpretation of a text. Semiotics refers to the study of systems of
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meanings, or codes (Grossberg et al 2006: 143). Codes are comprised of signs, with each
individual sign composed of both a signifier and a signified (Grossberg et al 2006: 147). Media
scholar Stewart Hall defines a hegemonic code as the dominant or preferred code, one that is
widely accepted and preferred by the producer of the text (Hall 1980: 47). First, in order for a
viewer to understand the GEICO commercial at all, he must understand the hegemonic code; in
this case, that the company advertising a product is motivated to convince viewers to purchase
their superior product. After this basic understanding is met, other aspects also affect the
message that is decoded, or extracted, from the commercial by the consumer, particularly the
viewer’s culture. Because most TV viewers accept the hegemonic code of the commercial,
GEICO can be assured that consumers understand and accept that the purpose of the commercial
is to persuade them to buy their product. However, since different viewers gain different
messages from a text, GEICO tries to craft commercials that are guaranteed to be interpreted in
the desired way by their target audience.
Polysemy refers to how one’s background and culture affects the meaning one gains from
a text. The term is defined as “the fact that anything can have a variety of different meaning and
interpretations” (Grossberg et al 2006: 140). Most of the interpretation in this commercial
surrounds the idiom “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.” Without an understanding of
this idiom, a viewer of this commercial may decode a meaning very different from the intended
one. For example, if a viewer learned English as a second language, he might not be familiar
with the idiom, and thus might interpret it as a literal reference to birds. Also, because the idiom
is a phrase more commonly used by older people, young children or teenagers may fail to fully
grasp the meaning of the phrase. Without complete understanding of the idiom, the viewer will
miss the implied humor of the commercial. However, GEICO is targeting an older audience (as
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explained later), so the effectiveness of the commercial is not compromised by teenagers’ lack of
understanding. Polysemy also matters when analyzing the commercial in terms of race. Although
race does not immediately seem to be a factor in this commercial, a person of the AfricanAmerican community might object to the fact that the African-American woman is portrayed as
the uninformed party in comparison to the two white males. A white person likely would not
decode this meaning, because his culture limits his sensitivity to the portrayal of blacks. The
mild element of race in this commercial relates to the issue of “enlightened racism” noted by
Jhally and Lewis. Enlightened racism refers to what is also known as “the Huxtable effect,” or
the fact that though African-Americans may be portrayed favorably in the media, most whites
assume these are unusual cases and out of the ordinary (Jhally 1992: 93). One could question
whether the commercial would have just as likely shown two black men and a dumbfounded
white woman instead. This situation seems more unlikely, and reinforces the idea that the
consumer might decode a negative racial stereotype depending on his culture. Though GEICO
succeeds generally in being race-neutral, different cultures could possibly be offended by the
way the roles are depicted. However, the likelihood of this is so slim that it does not affect the
success of the commercial.
Intertexuality is another aspect of semiotics that affects the meaning gained from
GEICO’s “A Bird in the Hand” commercial. Meaning is always intertexual, because codes are
articulated, or linked together, through other texts (Grossberg et al 2006: 154). In order to
appreciate the humor of the commercial, it helps to already be primed with prior knowledge of
the text. GEICO advertisements are known for being humorous, so a viewer who has already
seen GEICO commercials will be quicker to notice and appreciate the joke. Also, it helps to
know that the format of the commercial mimics that of another kind of commercial. The serious-
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intonated actor speaking directly to the audience with a draped sheet background parodies a
common type of low-budget commercial used by law firms and other smaller, local businesses.
Experience with this kind of commercial adds to the humor of the GEICO commercial. Yet
another layer of intertexuality occurs within the scene depicting the appraisal of the bird in hand
figurine. This element of the commercial directly parodies the TV show Antiques Roadshow,
from the way the scene looks and is arranged, to the shock on the woman’s face after hearing the
appraisal, to the blue box which pops up in the bottom of the screen showing the figurine’s
value. Prior experience with Antiques Roadshow allows the consumer to further appreciate the
commercial and understand the reference. GEICO’s use of several layers of intertexuality is an
effective way to create rich, multi-dimensional humor. A commercial with many different layers
of intertexuality is more distinct and thus the consumer remembers it longer, influencing him
when he needs to buy auto insurance.
The GEICO “A Bird in the Hand” commercial can be used not only as an example of
how semiotics affects meaning, but also as an example of effective branding. Branding refers to
the process of a company giving itself a distinct, recognizable identity (McChesney 1999: 24).
GEICO uses many different ways to brand itself. Within the first five seconds of the commercial,
the announcer has already stated: “Could GEICO really save you 15% or more on your car
insurance?” This phrase, and the similar phrase “Fifteen minutes could save you 15% or more on
your car insurance,” are both slogans which have become synonymous with GEICO. GEICO
also brands itself through its distinctive humorous commercials, which are unique and unlike any
other commercials. Another key figure associated with GEICO is their signature “GEICO gecko”
which appears in most of their commercials. The gecko is a sign which uses the image of the
gecko as the signifier and GEICO car insurance as the signified. Referencing back to Hall, the
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preferred message that the producers want the consumer to decode from this sign is that GEICO
car insurance is the cheapest. A natural offshoot of branding has been “selling retail products
based on their branded properties” (McChesney 1999: 24). Though GEICO gecko dolls are
available, they have not been widely marketed, but perhaps this could be the next step for
GEICO. Branding, merchandising, and product placement all feed into hypercommercialism
which “[people] are becoming inured to” (McChesney 1999: 35). According to media critic Neil
Postman, television “has made entertainment itself the natural format for the representation of all
experience” (Postman 1986: 87). As a society, we have become so used to hypercommercialism
that we completely accept it, and allow a shift in our consciousness toward a shorter attention
span. This demonstrates how media can alter the human consciousness (McLuhan 1966). GEICO
uses the change in human consciousness to its advantage, by creating quick yet clever
commercials which capture the attention within the first few seconds. The GEICO “A Bird in the
Hand” commercial demonstrates how branding factors into hypercommercialism and how this
can change the human consciousness.
Finally, analysis of the GEICO “A Bird in the Hand” commercial reveals how GEICO
strategically targets their audience. In order to determine the targeted audience, one must analyze
the content of the commercial. First, the two main intertexual references made were to the idiom
“A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush” and to the TV show Antiques Roadshow. The
aforementioned phrase is typically a piece of wisdom attributed to the 50-70 year old age range
meaning “a small gain that is guaranteed now is better than a large gain that is not guaranteed.”
The show Antiques Roadshow is also associated with an older generation, because it targets
people interested in antiques. People interested in antiques are generally adults who have
inherited potentially valuable goods, and usually antique hunting is a pastime more popular for
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older adults. So, since both references apply to an older generation, GEICO seems to be targeting
mature adult car owners who are cautious and need insurance. Though anyone sixteen and up
may own a car, generally parents pay for their children’s auto insurance, so GEICO wisely
targets adults as the main audience. Targeting such a specific audience is an example of “niche
marketing…in which the same product is marketed in distinctively different ways to different
audiences” (Grossberg et al 2006: 108). GEICO effectively uses niche marketing by creating a
variety of commercials which appeal to various specific groups of adults.
The GEICO commercial “A Bird in the Hand” commercial demonstrates how semiotics
affects meaning through both polysemy and intertexuality, how a company uses branding, and
how a company targets a specific audience. GEICO effectively uses all the aforementioned
tactics in their advertisements. GEICO’s devotion to their advertisement campaigns is shown in
the numbers. In 2007, GEICO spent $751 million on advertising (“Ad Wars”). In 2009, Warren
Buffet, the primary investor in Berkshire Hathaway, the company that owns GEICO, stated he
would spend $2 billion dollars on advertising for GEICO if he could (“Berkshire Hathaway
Annual Meeting”). The results of their high spending on advertisement have paid off. In 2009,
GEICO was the third largest auto insurance company in America based on market share ("Top
10 Car Insurance Companies by Market Share - USA."). Though consumers may not necessarily
run out and buy GEICO auto insurance directly after viewing one commercial, the constant
stream of clever, humorous advertisements positively shapes their perception of the brand. Due
to GEICO’s effective branding, consumers associate the company with humor, their symbol the
gecko, and their distinct, oft-repeated slogan. The ad campaign heightens viewers’ awareness of
the company, so that when they are considering switching insurance or getting insurance for the
first time, GEICO will come to mind.
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