It really must be magic, because at face-value it makes no sense.

Tod O'Brien - Friday, December 16, 2011

Something interesting caught my attention recently. I heard the theme to the classic sitcom “Cheers” playing from the television and wondered if it was a promo for a cable channel that was syndicating the series. My first thought was TVLand, so I took a look. After all, isn’t that what TV is for? It wasn’t a promo for Cheers in syndication. It was a State Farm commercial. Yes, State Farm Insurance.

Wow. A giant like State Farm using a 30-year-old sitcom theme song. They had my attention. Strictly from a marketing standpoint. I decided to look into the agency of record for State Farm and it is, after a brief separation, DDB Chicago. Big agency. Big client. Long time relationship…dating back to 1939. The separation came in 2010 and they were reunited this year.

After more poking around online I found a Chicago Tribune article addressing this on-off-then-on again relationship between the two. It was the key to this entire Cheers themed campaign for State Farm. It all came together, like one more beer in the cooler when that is all the more that you really wanted, and made perfect crystal–clear sense. In a world where many things do not make sense, we can now see why State Farm has had this questionable campaign presented to them.

DDB Chicago lost some very big business this year. Bud Light walked. This was worth up to $20M in billings at times. This happens often and is never good. Management gets nervous and often starts mass layoffs to keeps earnings up to preserve expected bonuses, and heads inevitably roll. To their credit DDB Chicago avoided this. For this I commend them. Not that they really care what I think, but I digress....

State Farm separated from DDB Chicago but had recently returned, and the Bud Light team was cut loose on the account. Spots were then produced using the theme music to a 30-year-old sitcom based in a BAR!!! It all makes sense now. Tie an auto insurer to a show that everyone hangs around in a bar all of the time, and then have to go home sometime. Perhaps even driving home. I would think a major auto insurer would not be too thrilled with having them selves associated with alcohol consumption…even indirectly. But they went with it. I get that State Farm is trying to say that you are not anonymous when you are a customer, but if this reverts to using an easily recognizable tune, why not Bob Seger’s “Feel like a number”, or something along those lines.

A Chief Creative Officer of DDB Chicago, a guy by the name of Ewan Paterson, stated: "I think if you've done brilliant beer ads, you'll do brilliant insurance ads, the gift is the magic of coming up with an idea." Wow. Really? Brilliant comment to the press. How does Beer advertising related to auto insurance marketing in any way, shape, or form?

The value of ideas has been debated for a long time. It’s the one thing agencies try to valuate the most when justifying huge fees. Execution of that plan, creative, media buys, etc., are all considered low value in the over-all scheme of a campaign. Large or small. Anything that a client feels that they could do would fall into the low value category. It’s the idea that the agency wants to sell, and the client wants to buy. Didn’t anyone on either side of the equation question this? Was it just a room full of yes-men and yes-women afraid to speak up or was it really the best possible option they could throw at an account the size of State Farm? Only those involved really know for sure.

But hey, it’s the ‘gift’ of ‘magic’ that some large agencies want you to believe in. And these agencies charge big time for access to that ‘gift’. Maybe all of those drivers in the beginning of the new TV spot are just leaving Cheers, or just went to buy some Bud Light. It’s magic I’m tellin’ ya!

P.S.- It is obvious that this is not rocket-surgery...upon hunting down a YouTube link to the commercial, the comments are full of the same type of questions regarding a bar and an auto insurer. Perhaps State Farm will get the message...

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