Blog #2: Is this campaign effective?

State Farms commercials featuring the Paul brothers appear to be very popular and highly successful.  Many people idolize Chris and it carried over to Cliff as well, seen as Cliff Paul now has a twitter page with well over 28,000 followers.  Clearly, he attracts many fans who adore him and his argyle and hopefully translate to new State Farm clients.  The advertisement strives to use Chris' positive connotation of success on the court, specifically in the field of assist, and to pair that with Cliff, because they are twins so they should have similar success in their respective fields.

Another aspect of this advertisement, however, is the hidden racial stereotypes that are prominent with a closer look.  The employment of these stereotypes are successful as well.  For instance, they dress Cliff in argyle, which on the surface seems like a stylish and well dressed worker, but it alludes him to one of the most prominent African American's in advertising: Aunt Jemima.  Aunt Jemima is a former kitchen slave turned face of a company, but the important thing to note is her role as a slave.  State Farm alludes to slavery many times, most notably through the commercials title, "Born to Assit" just as many African Americans were born to serve their white masters a few centuries ago.  State Farm uses this similarity to signify that their workers are here to serve their clients, or masters, ever need.  Furthermore, to show that this is indeed intended, every person Cliff is shown assisting to is white. 

I think one of the main reasons this campaign is so effective is because the racial stereotypes are so subliminal.  At first watching, I hardly noticed any racism--just the fact that it was the Pauls' dreams to grow up assisting in their professional fields.  However, after I closely watched the ad while looking for racial stereotypes I was able to find many.  Thus, one the surface level this advertisement achieves its goal: illustrating the superior service provided by State Farm and their agents because they have been assisting clients their whole life, seen as its in their blood. More over, this advertisement achieves another one of its goals: to portray racial stereotypes alluding to many previous ethnic characters in advertising.  The marketers do both and they do it well.

 The State Farm advertisement campaign featuring Cliff Paul drew many similarities to Aunt Jemima.  The State Farm ad had a racist connotation that African Americans, such as Cliff, have service in their blood.