State of Imitation

It is a typical Sunday in Wisconsin. The states nearly six million people go about a great number of various activities, but one trend can be found. The Green Bay Packers will be watched, screamed at, and cheered for on thousands of TVs across the state. This football team has long and deep roots in the hearts of many Wisconsinites, and the tradition continues every Sunday. The history of the Packers is rich in winning and that has been the case lately as well. The quarterback of the Packers, Aaron Rodgers, has quickly become a Wisconsin icon because of his great play on the field. Many companies have tried to take advantage of his popularity by having him star in commercials. State Farm is one notable example. State Farm uses Aaron Rodgers and a popular celebration to associate the passion of football fans to their company.
The commercial begins with Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers in a State Farm office. The people around Aaron begin using his championship belt celebration, which became famous during the Packers run to the Super bowl. The workers at the office use the celebration whenever they talk about the new “discount double take” a new option being offered at State Farm. The people in the office imply that they have no idea the celebration was originally Rodgers, and state that they know it to mean “discount double take”. The commercial ends with a crazed fan yelling for Aaron Rodgers, while doing the celebration and yelling “discount double take.” The idea behind this commercial is that State Farm is associating this celebration with their product, in order to create a good vibe for it. Just as Rodgers used the celebration after making a good play, State Farm is hoping that for customers, the celebration represents the “good play” of choosing State Farm. The title of the commercial- “State of Imitation” makes this fact even easier to see.
I believe this is a very successful commercial. The leader of the wildly popular Green Bay Packers stars, and the Wisconsin audience is immediately intrigued. Just having Aaron Rodgers in a commercial can make it very successful, keeping in mind that the general audience is Southeastern Wisconsin. This commercial can be seen on various shows or news programs across this area. It does a good job of using a trendy celebration to promote their product. With including the celebration in the commercial, the writers bring back the feelings and emotions that Packers fans felt after the Superbowl victory, and attach it to the “discount double take.” Evidence of this can be seen in the focus of the commercial. It is on imitation, and it comes up many times through the add. The writers were going for a bit of comedy possibly to attempt to make it stick in viewers minds.
Some of the issues that I find in the commercial are that knowledge of Aaron Rodgers is a must to understand it, also I feel that there is so much going on that it can detract from the main point. But these issues are hardly a problem for the audience that would view it. Packers fans were voted to be by far the most knowledgeable fans in the game in an online poll, winning 26% of the vote out of thirty two possible teams. (Jeremy,1) This goes to show that State Farm made a safe assumption in thinking that this commercial would hit home with most Packers fans.
This commercial and its success show us a lot about our society today. It clearly points out how we as a culture glorify our athletes and also speaks for the passion for football and sports fans today. The amount of money and revenue brought in by high profile athletes and sports organizations is staggering. I believe this commercial is a prime example of how society looks up to its public figures and immortalizes them. In a way, the idea of this add can be alarming. The general public knows and looks up to sports figures, but a large amount of the general public has no idea who represents their state in congress. That is just one other way that this commercial can be looked at. Despite all the ideas and thoughts that surrounds this commercial, it can be clearly seen that State Farm used a local icon to promote their product, and is very effective in doing so.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9Rv7czl9cU