Cars Are Great! Bicycles Are Stupid! (According to State Farm)
Written by Boston Biker on Apr 03Or at least that is what you would gather if you listened to the idiots from State Farm. Come on, why not ditch your car all together and save a bunch of money on gas, on oil changes on car…insurance….Wait a minute! State farm sells car insurance! Could this be a clever ploy to keep them in business even though the service (cars) they insure is on that is quickly becoming obsolete in many parts of the country! I think it could be!
Clearly State Farm is not above shilling for the auto industry (and by that same logic the global warming causing oil industry) if it means they will get a little more profit. If they pulled their heads out of their ass’s long enough to take the long view they will realize that the amount of money they are going to lose on global warming caused housing damage is going to make them go out of business.
One of the major causes of all that global warming, you guessed it, CARS! If more people rode their bike, there would be less global warming, and State Farm wouldn’t be forced to go out of business due to the inability to pay for all the (X-tream!) weather damage to it’s clients. (or the clients will no longer be clients once State farm jacks up its prices high enough to cover the costs).
Either way shame on you State Farm for this schlock.
(via)
EDIT:
While your at it avoid Geico as well, they have the lovely message that walking is also stupid…
Tags: idiots, state farm
Posted in advocacy, video | 2 Comments »
By Phil Supple
on Apr 4, 2008 | Reply
I’m sorry this commercial offended anyone. State Farm has been a supporter of bicycle safety through the thousands of bicycle rodeos we’ve held for children throughout the US and Canada, and we are open to discussion about how State Farm may be able to work with the bicycling community in the future.
This advertisement is part of an overall campaign where we attempt to capture consumers talking about points in their lives. Our intention is to recognize and empathize with these everyday challenges, and provide ways State Farm can help.
State Farm is also very concerned about doing what we can to improve health, safety and the environment in our communities. If you’d like more information on what we’re doing, go to statefarm.com (http://www.statefarm.com/about/csr/csr.asp)
Tim Van Hoof
Director of Marketing Communications
State Farm
By teeheehee
on Apr 4, 2008 | Reply
I think I was ok with the ad until the “Nice pants, Jim” comment. It came out snarky, and tos me nothing else seemed to dismiss the idea of bike riding as an alternative until that comment.
Some people will only make the switch from cars to bikes when the financial incentive is sufficient. I see how the ad targets those on the cusp of making that choice. It’s a growing market right now, for sure.
But his pants were nice. Shela should have said so in a sexy voice.
Or maybe she could have said “I’d be riding right there with you, but I switched to State Farm, so you’ll have to wait for me until summer when gas will be over $4.00 a gallon.”
The advertising ploy here was to bring the male character humiliation from the female one, which is a sociological and psychological trick (which works.) Guys by and large hate to be humiliated by girls, it’s just nature. Well, what we’re saying is we see what you did, sure funny haha, but from our point of view the angle is all wrong. Bikes are a real alternative that shouldn’t be scorned, but embraced, and not just by the director doing damage control. Who reads that? Most people will see the ad, not the apology.