We feel for Ted. The guy has hail damage to his car, he’s doing the right thing by calling his insurance agent, and then he loses his attractive girlfriend to a pig. You might be saying, “well, it’s not just any pig. It’s Maxwell.” And the rest of the America would be saying, “the pig from from those Geico ads has a name?” To which I say, yes. But, you see, that’s how Geico swoops in with their anthropomorphic pig and ruins Ted’s life even though nobody remembers Ted by the end of the commercial.

These new Maxwell commercials from the Martin Agency are actually a step in the right direction for Geico. The company used up all of their gecko jokes about ten years ago, and since everybody who wants to save 15 percent or more on their car insurance is already doing so, focusing the recent spots on different advantages, like online claims, is subtly smart. Although, I’m not sure a pig’s hoof would be able to work the tablet touch screen.

As for Ted, well now he’s the guy who lost a girlfriend to a pig. Life is pretty much over after that. Why would a girlfriend break up with her boyfriend just because he was put on hold with an insurance company? Couldn’t she go inside and watch The View instead of waiting impatiently outside? Does she have a tablet fetish? Does she eat bacon? These are questions I want answered in upcoming Geico spots.

Credits after the jump.

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What?!? Is that the Pillsbury Doughboy being used in a non-Pillsbury advertisement? Is that even legal? This is a big deal! Wait, is it a big deal? I mean, it’s not like they’re competitors of Geico’s. You can’t insure your car with baking products and you can’t bake with car insurance. Wait, can you? No…no, you can’t. Yet.

What we have here is an ad-crossover of sorts, which, if you think about it, wouldn’t be that surprising if brands weren’t so super protective of their copyrighted material. You’d think that someone would learn a lesson from Who Framed Roger Rabbit? about that joys of allowing your brands to interact with others. So it’s refreshing to see Pillsbury play ball with Geico and The Martin Agency for a joke about the giggly little Pillsbury Doughboy getting the pat-down from the TSA on his way to a baking convention. Man, that little guy really loves being touched, huh? Credits after the jump.

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Now that pro football fans are stuck in the two-week limbo between the NFL championship games and the Super Bowl (no one gives a shit about the Pro Bowl), let’s try to fill the void with something we overlooked last week that is, well, football-related. Here’s a new effort from Martin Agency for Pizza Hut called “Hut Hut Hut,” which as you can imagine, plays off the latter’s name while highlighting the standard call made by quarterbacks to get the ball rolling, so to speak.

Instead of hiring actual NFL stars, though, this somewhat inviting clip, which is part of Martin’s Super Bowl push for the the Hut, salutes the fans, whether they be high-school football players, average joes, parents and/or their kids. The web effort from Martin also happened to serve as a call for viewers to submit their own “hut hut” clips to Pizza Hut’s Facebook page in the hopes of cutting a user-generated version to air in time for the Super Bowl pre-game run-up. Unfortunately, deadline expired on Jan. 20, but we’ll see what agency and client came up with on Feb. 3. Credits after the jump.

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.