Hasta La Creative!

After retaining creative duties at the start of the year following an unofficial creative review, DDB Chicago launched a brand refresh for State Farm in June which saw the agency retire the longtime “Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there” tagline in favor of “Here to help life go right” and an emphasis on how State Farm can help its customers navigate life’s ups and downs.

With football season here, the agency teamed up with Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers and linebacker Clay Matthews III for a new, pigskin-friendly take on the same concept. 

At the beginning of the spot, Matthews give a fiery locker room pep talk which inspires the team, presumably to victory. In the next scene, Rodgers repeats lines from the speech, “Nobody comes into this house without paying the price,” while stalking a fly with a golf club. Things go considerably less well in the latter scenario, but a State Farm representative arrives to help out.

While we remain unconvinced that “Here to help life go right” has the staying power of “Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there,” the new spot shows the flexibility and potential inherent in the approach.

The juxtaposition of the same words applied to different scenarios, yielding disastrous results when wrongfully applied, makes for some nice comedic framing that helps demonstrate the benefits of combining home and auto coverage with State Farm.

Matthews asking “Well, did you get it?” with a mouth full of sandwich is a nice touch.

Credits:
Advertising Agency: DDB Chicago
Creative Directors/Art Directors/Copywriters: Brian Boord, Chad Broude
Group Creative Director: Mel Routhier
Producer: Scott Kemper

Debuting during tonight’s Chicago Bears/Green Bay Packers Monday night match-up is the latest in State Farm’s Discount Double-Check campaign from DDB Chicago. And, folks, it is a doozy.

Again, we find Packers QB Aaron Rodgers flanked by the SNL ”Superfans,” George Wendt and Robert Smigel, on a flight that has now lasted two months since these guys first showed up. Rodgers, who you may know is as bad at acting as he is incredible at football (the worst and best, respectively), faces his biggest challenge yet: Portray someone who isn’t Aaron Rodgers looking uncomfortable while trying to deliver scripted lines. The results are, well, watch the clip.

In Rodgers’ defense (and it’s easy for me because he is my favorite player ever), a Chicago accent is hard to replicate. In DDB’s defense, I sympathize with how many takes of Rodgers’ “acting” they had to do before just saying “fuck it” and going with the above spot. And, in everyone’s defense, this campaign has been incredibly successful for State Farm over the years. Don’t like Rodgers’ acting? Think the spot isn’t funny? Well that’s too bad, because the rest of America loves these things. This is advertising, and the will of the consumers wins (haha). Credits after the jump.

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