As part of our countdown to Advertising Week 2016 in New York City and this year’s Madison Avenue Walk of Fame, we’re profiling the winners from the past 12 years; here are the winners from 2008.

The Serta Counting Sheep

Brand Represented: Serta
Year Introduced: 2001

For centuries, the cure for being unable to sleep at night has been to count sheep jumping over a fence. In 2001, Doner, the lead creative agency for mattress company Serta, brought this concept to life with counting sheep mascots.

The characters’ backstory circles around an ad executive who had a long day at the office. Struggling to sleep on a lumpy mattress, he counts sheep knowing that once his new Serta mattress arrives the sheep will be out of business. He takes his lightbulb idea over to Serta and begins the search for the 13 Counting Sheep. Since their debut and induction into the 2008 Walk of Fame, the Counting Sheep have won the Gold Effie and the American Advertising Federation Silver Addy and starred in over 20 commercial spots.

GEICO Cavemen

Brand Represented: GEICO
Year Introduced: 2004

“It’s so easy to use GEICO.com a caveman could do it!”

Shortly after the GEICO Gecko took the world by storm, The Martin Agency developed another instantly iconic set of prehistoric characters for the auto insurance company: cavemen. The campaign revolved around a simple premise — using GEICO is so easy a caveman could do it — which offended the modern-day cavemen who were less B.C. and more bohemian bourgeois.

After winning their honorable induction into the 2008 Walk of Fame, the popularity of the Cavemen won them their own spin-off TV series, Cavemen, on ABC in 2007. Poor ratings forced the show to quickly become short-lived, but not to worry — new commercial spots for the Cavemen in 2008 would feature the icons spoofing the show, all in good fun.

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