- State Farm launched a new campaign timed to the May 8 kickoff of the 2026 WNBA season, featuring Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark alongside a talking, animated stanchion pad character.
- Two 30-second commercials, titled "See Everything" and "Put in the Work," were filmed at Gainbridge Fieldhouse and debut as the WNBA opens its 30th season.
- Clark first signed an NIL deal with State Farm in October 2023, making her the insurer's first-ever collegiate endorsement partner.
- Despite earning an estimated $119,000 in on-court earnings last season, Clark ranked sixth among the world's highest-paid female athletes in 2025, pulling in nearly $16 million in endorsements from companies including Nike, Gatorade, and State Farm.
Caitlin Clark is back in front of the camera for State Farm, and this time, she’s talking to the furniture. With the 2026 WNBA season underway, State Farm has launched one of its most creatively grounded campaigns yet, spotlighting the State Farm Stanchion Pad with the help of Clark.
The stanchion pad, a branded covering on the hoops’ support structure, has been a staple of State Farm’s basketball marketing for nearly two decades, appearing in NBA, WNBA, and college basketball broadcasts alike.
The new effort depicts the pad having conversations with Clark during game breaks and at a late-night practice session, drawing a parallel between Clark, the pad, and State Farm going above and beyond. Just as Clark has been everywhere on the court, State Farm has been everywhere on the backboard.
This is far from Clark’s first rodeo with the brand. Clark first joined State Farm in 2023, making her the insurance giant’s first college athlete partner, and has appeared in multiple campaigns since, from “Right Kind of Magic” to last year’s “With the Assist” platform.
Clark also starred in a new campaign for Xfinity in April 2026 and in a new Gatorade campaign narrated by Candace Parker in March 2026.
Beyond State Farm, Clark’s brand roster includes Nike on an estimated $28 million, eight-year deal with a signature shoe slated for later in 2026, plus active partnerships with Gatorade, Xfinity, and Gainbridge.
State Farm’s own endorsement roster has long read like a who’s who of American sports. The brand’s roster of athlete partners has included LeBron James, Aaron Rodgers, Patrick Mahomes, and Chris Paul, and more recently added JuJu Watkins to their women’s sports portfolio.
Takeaways
State Farm isn’t just running an ad, it’s reminding the sports world that it has been quietly embedded in basketball’s biggest moments for nearly 20 years, and it’s betting that Caitlin Clark is the right person to finally make audiences notice the stanchion pad they’ve overlooked for two decades.
This is a clever play: Clark’s on-court visibility is unmatched, and her personal brand story, someone who shows up, works hard, and sees everything, mirrors the campaign’s message almost too perfectly.
With all 44 of her 2026 regular-season games airing on national TV, State Farm is buying wall-to-wall exposure. And with a Nike signature shoe drop on the horizon, Clark is arguably approaching peak cultural moment, which means this campaign lands at exactly the right time.
Is the “talking stanchion pad” concept clever enough to cut through ad fatigue, or does it risk being too quirky? What does State Farm’s continued heavy investment in women’s basketball say about where sports marketing is heading?
