Signs in Commercials

All-State Insurance commercial

A guy is sitting in his car with his two friends at the Florida State University football game in the parking lot. He is wearing his FSU attire like a real fan. When all of a sudden he says, "Dude, that was Bobby Bowden." He and his friends sit there in awe for like three seconds before the driver says, "I'm gonna go touch him." He opens his car door only to have a pickup pass by him on that side at the exact same time and knock his door off. He seems unfazed, and he gets out and runs off. Couple of seconds later he comes panting back and gets in the car and sits there for like a second than goes to his two buddies that are with him, "That wasn't him."

The basic theme that the insurance company is trying to convey to us is that it doesn't matter how crazy the situation, they will still cover any damages. A lot of humor is conveyed, but in order to understand the humor, you need to understand the basic signs of stupidity that most Americans are familiar with. In order to understand the commercial, you need to see the humor in the character that makes a fool out of himself. He doesn't look like the smartest guy on the block. He wants to go touch Bobby Bowden the coach of the Florida State Football team. You need to understand Americans obsession with famous people. You need to understand the absurdity of the situation when he gets his car door knocked off over a mistaken identity. Basically, the entire commerical's humor is based upon this fellows cluelessness. The pauses in the commercial are crucial to the humor conveyed in the commercial. The three men sit in awe in silence which creates a little tension right before the action such as the door getting knocked off and the funny punch lines. Sometimes a commercial's subjective point of view is hard to identify such as this one. However, they usually want you to remember their commercial and will use humor to help you remember it.