Ads We Love: "Never" - State Farm

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Client: State Farm | Ad Firm: DDB

Why it's cool?

This spot takes half a step back from where most copywriting would start the story and gives us all the 'never' moments in life. Each never drives forward to the next never with humor and gusto.

Why we love it?

It's endearing without being sappy. It makes fun of all of those amazing life altering 'never' moments without being cynical.

What can you learn from it?

This spot is a crash course in relating to your customers. State Farm was clearly targeting younger families whose adults woke up one morning and found themselves with kids. They very clearly linked the 'Where did the time go?' feeling most people this age are experiencing with all the 'nevers' they once declared. Once they related to those feelings and tapped into those memories, all that was left was associating their product with their prospect's lives.

The main take away? When you set out to story tell to your audience, priority one is relating to  your audience. This spot is a perfect example of how to do that right.

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Patrick Kirk

No one knows the exact day Patrick Kirk was born, because he was carried into town by a pack of wild coyotes, but the end of March seems to have some consensus built around it. The townsfolk hadn’t much need for a coyote-raised wild boy seein’ as they already had a town idiot. So, they set Patrick off with the next traveling circus that rolled through town. It was there that the young boy learned of books and math and writing and other cultural offerings from Martha, the kindly old bearded lady, and her husband, Harold, the world’s tallest midget. In between shows, he would explore each new town, never having the chance to make friends with children his age, mostly because they didn’t speak coyote… However, it was on one such trek in his later teen years that Patrick happened upon a small cinema playing an engagement of Major League II. From then on, he knew that he must dedicate his life to motion pictures. The members of the circus were sad to see him go, some angry calling cinema ‘beneath them’, but Patrick took his leave and headed off to university to study the filmic arts. Over nearly half a decade of study, Patrick learned from notables such as Fritz Kiersch, director of Children of the Corn, and Gray Fredrickson, producer of the Godfather Trilogy. Patrick has worked locally in the Oklahoma City market as a grip, camera operator, and editor. He has directed a number of short films and commercial projects and aspires to do more. When not in the editing suite or on set, Patrick can be found relaxing at local sporting events or playing a round of golf. He is particularly fond of poker and has been known to frequent the local casinos. Patrick also experiments with cooking and can make a mean batch of tacos. Among things he still would like to accomplish, Patrick hopes to fly to the moon one day and get into an old fashioned pistols at dawn duel; preferably both at the same time.