On Monday night, Los Angeles Clippers point guard Chris Paul hit a 15-foot bank shot as time expired to put his team up 2-0 over the Memphis Grizzlies in the first round of the NBA playoffs. You should have seen it—it was really cool.

You know what’s even cooler? The fact that Chris Paul finally met his long-lost brother who we learned existed during the holiday season. Finally, State Farm and agency Translation’s sick little experiment, which included separating twins at a young age and documenting their lives for over two decades in the name of insurance, is coming to an end. Finally, Chris Paul can be at peace. And, finally, Cliff Paul has enough money to quit his job at State Farm once an for all, pursuing a new career of professional moocher.

However, having established a reputation for inhumane cruelty, don’t count out the possibility that Translation isn’t done toiling in the lives of the brothers Paul. Sure, they may have reunited the twins, but that doesn’t mean that before the NBA Finals, Cliff is “accidentally” run over by an uninsured driver. I’m just saying, if Blake Griffin shows up to Cliff’s funeral wearing an argyle sweater in a few months, don’t be surprised. Credits after the jump.

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It’s never been easy to get some prompt, direct feedback from Translation, and this week’s been no exception. Over the last 24 hours, we’ve received several tips that Chris Cereda, who’s led creative at the New York-based agency for a year as CCO, has left Translation. Once again, we inquired directly to the agency and without comment, were directed to the man himself, Translation founder/CEO and Adage’s latest Executive of the Year, Steve Stoute, who we’ve come to know a bit in recent months.

Unfortunately, we’ve been unable to reach Stoute (let alone Cereda, who’s LinkedIn appears to have disappeared as well) when calling his office and are still waiting to hear back. As for Cereda himself, the Translation CCO has led the charge on various notable campaigns in recent months including the fun State Farm “Chris Paul/Cliff Paul” work and of course, the various Bud Light/Platinum efforts. Prior to joining Translation, the creative chief served as ECD at KBS+P and has worked at McCann on accounts including MasterCard during his career. We’re checking with all resources on this, so we’ll update with comment if and when we do hear back (wishful thinking, perhaps).

From Translation comes the second installment of the Chris Paul/Cliff Paul State Farm saga, which will make its TV debut tomorrow night.

If you recall, Episode I (the entire premise of which rested on a pun about the word “assist”) premiered during the NBA’s Christmas Day games. This obviously isn’t the first time we’ve seen a professional athlete star in State Farm campaigns, but what Translation realizes that DDB Chicago doesn’t is that having a professional athlete actually attempt to deliver lines and, well, “act” isn’t the best idea. I’m a Packers fan through and through, which is why it made me so unbelievably uncomfortable to watch Aaron Rodgers totally bomb during those “Discount Double-Check” ads. Seriously, the dude was out-acted by a bunch of preschoolers.

Unless you have Blake Griffin or Peyton Manning at your disposal, just dress up your professional athlete in funny clothes, offer 3-5 variations of the site gag, and don’t ever give them lines. Hey look, it’s Chris, er, Cliff Paul wearing funny glasses and a dapper suit and an argyle sweater. Haha, so silly. See how easy that was? Now I want to watch more. Credits after the jump.

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L.A. Clippers All-Star point guard Chris Paul got plenty of airtime yesterday beyond his team’s beatdown of the Denver Nuggets.Thanks to this latest effort for State Farm, which this time comes to us from Translation and director Craig Gillespie (the guy who helmed Lars and the Real Girl and the Fright Night remake), we learn that Paul has an identical twin brother who happened to accidentally get separated from him at birth. Though the pair take two different career paths, with “Cliff Paul” becoming a State Farm rep (of course) their fundamentals remain the same. At the very least, this cute installment for the insurance brand (wait for the twins’ brief reunion at the end) gives poor Aaron Rodgers a breather from more kids’ heckling–at least for now. Credits after the jump. Read more

From Translation comes a new spot for Bud Light that debuted during the NFL season kickoff this past weekend. To the tune of Stevie Wonder’s classic jam “Superstition,” we find a diverse selection of fans imbibing The King of Beers’ slightly less caloric sibling while conducting a bevy of bizarre pregame rituals.

Okay, so maybe these aren’t quite as bizarre as they could be, but Bud Light doesn’t generally target much of an insane demographic. Rather, Bud Light seems to be attempting to pick up market share among the kind of people who think that buying the same kind of nachos every Sunday is zany. Still, Colts fans will undoubtedly love the horseshoe in the fridge move, and this will more than likely inspire some of your least favorite people from Indiana to giggle gleefully about this on game day.

In other news, is that a Bills fan we see actually having something to high-five about? Credits after the jump.

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It took long enough, but two weeks after first telling you that Richie Glickman left his ECD gig at JWT New York for a role at Translation, we can now safely say that the creative has officially joined up with Steve Stoute & company. As we initially mentioned, Glickman has signed on with Translation as group creative director, a position he officially assumed on August 20 and one which calls for him to work across multiple accounts. The agency’s CCO Chris Cereda tells us, “As Translation continues to grow, we are excited to welcome Richie into the fold and look forward to the creative leadership and thinking he will bring.” So, there you have it and now, on with the show.

-McDonald’s Twitter campaign=fail. link

-Chris Cereda joined Translation as CCO. link

-The Apple Store and the White House are now pretty much worth the same. link

-Here’s one of several CP+B and Psyop-created spots from the “Funnovations” campaign for Old Navy (above).

-The American Bus Association takes issue with William Shatner‘s latest Priceline campaign. link

Call it a restaurant, diner or whatever you will, but as we’ve said before, Steak ‘n Shake was a late-night blessing during those hazy days of college. Though it’s been 10 years or so since our last visit to one of their locations (plus, we can’t even find one close by anymore), we’re not sure if these new ads from KBS+P have us ready to wax nostalgic just yet. Still, it’s hard to complain, if you’re starvin like marvin, about $3.99 all-you-can-eat pancakes as promoted in the ad called “Tear” above.

Besides, there’s only so far you can go when promoting a restaurant chain’s deals and we think these executions are somewhat of an improvement over what Zimmerman put forth during their time with Steak ‘n Shake. KBS+P, if you recall, took over the account in March. See two more deal-promoting spots and credits after the jump.

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Now that Jonah Bloom has been finally made official as content strategy lead at KBS+P, the New York-based MDC agency is turning its focus to the creative department and hiring DJ Pierce as executive creative director. This actually marks a return trip to KBS+P for Pierce, who started his ad career as an art director at the agency.

Before returning to his roots, so to speak, Pierce spent the last four years at CP+B, starting as a senior AD then moving up to an ACD role in which he was part of the team responsible for Best Buy “Twelpforce.” Pierce was eventually promoted to CD and worked on accounts including AmEx Small Business. During his career, the creative logged time at JWT, DDB and Lowe’s New York offices as well as Fallon Minneapolis.

Joining Pierce in the ECD ranks at KBS+P is Chris Cereda, who has been promoted from creative director. Both ECDs will be working across a range of accounts.