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. continued…

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