Insurance company pulls Super Bowl commercial amidst California fires
State Farm Insurance, long a stalwart of Super Bowl advertising, is pulling a commercial from next month’s big game following the devastating California wildfires.
The move comes one year after its spot was deemed best in show by voters in USA TODAY’s Ad Meter spot, winning the annual competition with a spot featuring Hollywood legends Danny DeVito and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The 60-second spot, ‘Like A Good Neighbaa,’ plays off Schwarzenegger’s thick Austrian accent and his subsequent inability to pronounce the insurance company’s longtime tagline.
It also featured imagery of Schwarzenegger in several disaster hero roles, including lugging a pair of dogs to safety as a house burns in the background.
‘State Farm, its agents, and employees are all focused on helping customers impacted by the Southern California wildfires in the midst of this tragedy,” State Farm said in a statement released to USA TODAY and other news media outlets. ‘Our claims force is the largest in the industry and we are bringing the full scale and force of our catastrophe response teams to help customers recover – whether they are on the ground in LA or across the country.
‘Our focus is firmly on providing to support to the people of Los Angeles. We will not be advertising during the game as originally planned.’
The wildfires that have devastated the Altadena and Pacific Palisades neighborhoods of Los Angeles have now killed at least 25 and destroyed or damaged more than 12,000 residences and businesses. More than 200,000 residents were forced to flee their homes and at least 82,000 residents are still under evacuation orders, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said Thursday.
Large insurers like State Farm have an understandably massive task ahead while residents wrestle with what’s being termed an ‘insurance crisis’ amid reluctance to insure properties in endangered areas. The area potentially faces disaster in another form should significant rain fall on the area in coming weeks, turning hilly, scorched terrain into potential mudslides.
Fox, which will broadcast the Feb. 9 Super Bowl from New Orleans, has already sold out its inventory of ads and finding a replacement for State Farm’s slot will not be a challenge. The cost for a 30-second ad is reportedly around $7 million.
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