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America's Favorite Spokescharacters 2014

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Geico has been turning out consistently funny commercials for well over a decade starring the likes of a gecko, an adventurous pig, and modern-day cavemen. But last year, the company achieved something new with a boorish camel: a viral hit.

In the spot “Hump Day,” produced by The Martin Agency, Caleb the Camel walks through an office yapping like a loudmouth co-worker. The much-shared ad (particularly on Wednesdays) has racked up 21 million hits on YouTube – more than all the other videos on Geico’s YouTube channel combined – and spawned thousands of parody versions, including a White House Tweet featuring Joe Biden and a Dallas Mavericks video with Dirk Nowitzki standing in for the talking camel. The wild success of the campaign has vaulted Caleb the Camel to fourth place on the Forbes/E-Poll list of America's Most Popular Spokescharacters.

For its E-Score Celebrity service, E-Poll Research ranks more than 8,000 bold-faced names on 46 attributes through public opinion polling, as well as the most popular spokescharacters.

Some brands seek to build buzz with a celebrity spokesperson, but celebs don’t come cheap, and there’s always reputational risks, as they are, after all, human.

“Spokescharacters can be a very safe and memorable way to represent a brand as they won’t end up in jail or the tabloids and they won’t Tweet something inappropriate," ” says Gerry Philpott, president of E-Poll Market Research." The fact that they never age allows them to appeal to many different age groups and provides the marketing nirvana of ‘cradle to grave’ branding.”

Ranking first on the 2014 Most Popular Spokescharacters list are the Budweiser Clydesdales: Of those polled who were aware of the beer pitch-horses, 76% said they were likable. Second place goes to a perennial on the list, MetLife ’s Snoopy (71% likeability).

In third place is another auto insurance spokescharacter: Allstate’s “Mayhem” (62% likability). In the Leo Burnett agency campaign, actor Dean Winters (30 Rock, Law & Order SVU), embodies the idea of “mayhem” by impersonating everything from a faulty GPS to a deer to a crying infant – anything that would cause you to get into a car accident and wish you had insurance. The commercials are absurdly funny. Allstate was ranked by Facebook to be in its top five brands globally, and the Mayhem page has 1.8 million fans.

Susan Credle, Leo Burnett's Chief Creative Officer, says that Mayhem, which premiered in 2010, was meant to be a summer campaign. “We somewhat jokingly said, well, if this Mayhem work resonates, it just might be the fall campaign.” It definitely resonated, and several years later is still going strong, with occasional pauses to keep it fresh.

Geico’s wiseguy camel Caleb is close behind in likeability at 61%. The concept was born out of the ongoing “Happier Than …” campaign, in this case, the question, “What could be happier than a camel on Wednesday?” “We went through casting for different voices and this one came rising to the top,” says The Martin Agency’s Wade Alger, VP/Group Creative Director on Geico.

Following the success of the hump day spot, Caleb has appeared in a series of Super Bowl ads with Terry Bradshaw and a “silence your cell phone” spot where he patrolled a movie theater and heckled his co-worker Mike.

Could we see more of Caleb? Alger says, “We never say never."

Geico and Allstate aren’t just neck-in-neck when it comes to the likability of their spokescharacters. At least partly on the strength of its big ad spending, Geico passed Allstate last year to become the second largest auto insurer in the U.S., with premiums up 11% to $18.57 billion, compared to $18.45 billion for Allstate.

SeaWorld’s Shamu is a rare example of a spokescharacter that has become associated with controversy. Last year’s documentary Blackfish claimed that the marine park mistreats its animals, focusing on Tilikum, an orca that has killed three people, which has not been good for the company’s image. Still, Shamu places sixth on our list, with a 59% likability rating.

Follow Dina Gachman on Twitter @TheElf26.