Elbert "Ickey" Woods Just Loves Celebrating Cold Cuts

Everyone knows GEICO commercials are pretty low on the totem pole.  Offhand, I'd say Progressive commercials are worse, but other than that, its tough to name any other ad campaigns that could be grouped in with these two.

GEICO peeked its head out of the basement with the "Hump Day" commercial, but then quickly shut the door on itself with those two goons playing the guitar and mandolin at the end.  With their latest commercial featuring Elbert "Ickey" Woods, they may have swung the door back open.

First few times I watched the commercial, all I knew is that this big dude in the football jersey was charged up for some deli meats. Upon further review, Ickey Woods is a retired fullback who played four seasons for the Cincinnati Bengals. He was an All-Pro in 1988 when the Bengals won the AFC Championship but lost to the San Francisco 49ers 20-16 in Super Bowl XXIII. Oh, and he was a giant of a man in football pads who could break it down.

His famous dance, The Ickey Shuffle, was used as a touchdown celebration (he had 27 opportunities for the Shuffle in his career), and took the sports world by storm for a brief second.. Okay, probably not even that long, but long enough for Darrell Waltrip to bust out the move after a Daytona 500 victory.

You have to give GEICO points for originality on this one if nothing else. But rest assured, Ickey didn't do this for the money. I'm sure he's doing just fine as the owner, CEO and coach of the Cincinnati Sizzle of the National Women's Football League.

Commercial Battle - Subaru vs GEICO

Subaru was never someone I would've pegged to end up in the commercial battle, but this commercial is probably one of the best I have seen since... well, our last commercial battle.  Between his face at the beginning and his amazing collection of art at the end, the marketing guys at Subaru done good here.

GEICO seems to always toe the line between hilarious and obnoxious, and while I still think the clown tandem at the end is the latter, there's something about the "I love the Lebanese" line that gets me every time in this one, making it worthy to stand it battle.

Commercial Battle: GEICO vs. Jingo's

This may be the closest battle we've had here. It really is a toss-up, and depending on which day it is, I could lean one way or the other. But I'm gonna go with the video below, for Jingos' "Flirt" over GEICO's "Eddie Money Travel."

Why, you ask?  Because its not how you start, its how you finish.