Borrowed Interest Again
2 Comments Published by Frank Lane December 4th, 2011 in Execution, Linkage, Way OffI am commenting on the new State Farm campaign which I just say for the first time this morning.
The situation of a wife catching a husband on line with his insurance agent and thinking he is talking with a woman leads one’s mind so far away from any kind of Expectation related to insurance, that the commercial never resolves itself into a real message. The slogan of “Get to a better state,” is a nice try for Linkage to State Farm, but nothing in this spot leads me to even consider switching insurance. In fact, the spot leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth for the Brand.
In one way, this is a fun commercial–in that the bossy, unthinking, and disrespectful woman is shown to be just that. I don’t know if that qualifies as “borrowed interest,” though.
Mindy, “Borrowed Interest” is when you use a situation that has nothing to do with the product, it’s use, or anything about the product to get attention.
In this case, if other insurance brands did not have personal agents with whom you could talk, this spot could have been about a personal agent, and it would not have automatically been borrowed interest.
In this case, it was a bit of interesting theater that had nothing to do with what was being sold.