The fires that have decimated the Los Angeles area in recent days have led State Farm to drop its planned commercial for Super Bowl LIX.
Ad Age reported Wednesday that the insurance company has opted out of airing a commercial. They ran a commercial last year featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger and his old Twins co-star Danny DeVito.
The company cited its plan to focus on helping victims of the LA fires.
“State Farm, State Farm agents, and our employees are all focused on helping customers impacted by the Southern California wildfires in the midst of this tragedy. State Farm serves more [than] 8 million customers in California — more than any other insurer — and we’ve been doing this for nearly 100 years,” State Farm said in a statement to Front Office Sports. “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.
“We are proud to report that our customer contact is at 90%. We’ve received over 7,400 home and auto claims, and we are putting tens of millions of dollars back into customers’ hands. These numbers will continue to rise as residents return and assess damage. Our focus is firmly on providing support to the people of Los Angeles. We will not be advertising during the game as originally planned.”
Fox is reportedly charging at least $7 million per 30-second spot during this year’s game. The network has been sold out of ad inventory for at least two months. There’s a waiting list for prospective advertisers, so State Farm’s spot should be easily filled.
State Farm has been heavily criticized in the wake of the fires. The company, the largest property insurer in California, announced in March 2024 it would not renew 72,000 property insurance policies in the state. The company cited rising costs, outdated insurance regulations and increasing risks of catastrophes, including fires.