Neighbourly Activities Take a Dysfunctional Turn in State Farm's ESPN: The Neighbourhood Campaign

Bicoastal production company ArtClass and ESPN CreativeWorks recently collaborated on the production of several new broadcast and social spots for ‘ESPN: The Neighbourhood Presented by State Farm.’ The co-branded spots are part of a campaign to promote State Farm’s sponsorship of the NBA and College Gameday on ESPN.

Launching this past weekend, ‘Car wash’ and ‘Sugar Maples’ are the latest instalments of the episodic-style campaign, which humorously riff on reality TV with a cast of superstar athletes and ESPN network personalities playing the role of dysfunctional neighbours. 

‘Car wash’ is a gossipy game of telephone centred around some neighbourly car washing and a car crash, starring ESPN's Doris Burke, NBA Hall of Famer Paul Pierce, and Serbian big man Boban Marjanović of the Dallas Mavericks. 

‘Sugar Maples’ captures a landscaping feud between neighbours Paul Pierce and ESPN's Stan Verrett with some well-intentioned tree-trimming help from Boban Marjanović.

The broadcast spots aired on the heels of ‘Intro,’ which introduces all the main players of ‘The Neighbourhood’ series, and ‘Outfits,’ an explosive episode starring ESPN favourites Jay Williams and Jalen Rose to promote the Christmas Day NBA games on ESPN.

The social spots for ‘The Neighbourhood’ campaign feature the same recurring cast: ‘Caroling’ is set to the tune of awkward holiday singing; ‘Draft Day’ is a nostalgic nod to ‘80s sitcom show opens; and ‘Confessions’ is a montage of reality TV-style confessionals.