In today's Wall Street Journal—Hey, it's free today!—Suzanne Vranica reports that Geico Corp. spent $403 million on those constantly running talking gecko and caveman ads in 2005 and raised that by 20% in 2006. (For perspective, the paper points out that Coca-Cola spent $326.1 million on ads during the same period—and yet they still lost Jimmy Fallon and Parker Posey to Pepsi.)

The ads have many high profile fans, including Katie Couric and gazillionaire Warren Buffett, whose Berkshire Hathaway owns the company: "I love the advertising," he tells the Journal. AdWeek clearly does as well, naming the lizard one of its top ad icons of 2005. (In 2006, that honor went to Colonel Sanders of KFC.)

Another fan is the New York Observer's Philip Weiss, who called the Geico gecko his "Everyman Hero" last year and tried to get to the bottom of his strange appeal. Weiss spoke with Joe Lawson, the writer of the gecko ads, who told him that the CGI mascot's cockney accent is meant to evoke a "young Michael Caine" and that he should be "relaxed, self-assured, not obnoxious, not selling you."

He's certainly a lot more relaxed than the Eastwood Insurance Cowboy, who has popped up to discuss "doody," cock-block a guy at makeout point, and deliver a baby in a moving car. Now that's a corporate icon that can make you feel slimy all over.