Geico YouTube Ad: The Art of Making a Commercial That's Impossible to Skip

— -- Insurance company GEICO has released another ad campaign to make its commercials irresistibly "unskippable."

The company released four online ads that parody YouTube ads you can "skip" after five seconds. In these 15- to 30-second spots, actors get to the heart of their marketing message ("savings") in the first few seconds. Then they freeze in motion, leaving viewers to watch awkwardly unexpected scenes unfold.

One of the spots in the "Unskippable" ad campaign, named "High Five," simply shows a pair of friends stoked for "savings."

Another ad features a mother serving her family at a picturesque dinner table, saying, "Don't thank me. Thank the savings."

The narrator adds, "You can't skip this GEICO ad, because it's already over," and the usual motto about 15 minutes of saving 15 percent on car insurance. Wait for the hungry St. Bernard in that one.

"Pre-roll ads are annoying," the company that produced the ads, The Margin Agency based in Richmond, Virginia, said in its description. "We all share that feeling of wanting to click 'skip' as soon as humanly possible. Thankfully, we found a solution. These ads are impossible to skip. They're already over."

GEICO, which is a subsidiary of billionaire Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc., has no shortage of memorable marketing characters, including a gecko, bluegrass musicians, Maxwell the pig and the “hump day” camel.