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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John Cusack wants to know: “Why just go from A to B when imagination can take you everywhere?” It’s a valid question, especially coming from the guy who played Lloyd Dobler. Would  the boombox move from Say Anything exist with conventional thinking?

The tagline is the adspeak centerpiece of Commonwealth’s new Chevrolet campaign titled “Find New Roads.” The 90-second spot premiered last night alongside irresponsible tweets about Katy Perry‘s cleavage and Justin Timberlake‘s bad haircut. Chevy’s ad acts as a trailer for what’s to come, showing off the Volt, Spark, Sonic, Impala, and Stingray. There’s also a robotic pet dog and a doe interacting, which may be awkward symbolism for combining technology and nature, but we can just pretend that part doesn’t exist. The response thus far has been positive, and the ad already racked up a six-figure view count on Youtube.

It makes sense for Commonwealth to jump outside the box. The agency, which unites folks from Goodby and McCann, was born thanks to unconventional thinking from ex-GM CMO Joel Ewanick, who didn’t want to waste money on Super Bowl ad space. One could easily see “Find New Roads” debuting during last week’s game, but it didn’t have to compete with farmers and sloppy kissing noises. GM fired Ewanick last summer, but his auto agency and some of his ideas are still in play, apparently.

I guess he didn’t try the boombox move with GM’s senior leadership. 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. continued…

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