State Farm’s Super Bowl Pivot Spotlights Lower Ad Spend by Insurers

State Farm’s decision to pull its 2025 Super Bowl ad was prompted by the wildfires that continue to impact the Los Angeles area. With the company’s absence from the Big Game, no insurance firm is slated to appear in this year’s live telecast.
Not having ads with Jake from State Farm, Flo from Progressive or the Geico Gecko during the game might seem unusual, but it reflects an ongoing trend of declining ad spend from the biggest insurers in the U.S.
Advertising spend from the insurance industry has cratered in recent years as underwriting costs skyrocketed. According to S&P Global Market Intelligence data for 2023 (the most recent full-year numbers available), Progressive, the largest spender in the category, was down 30% to $1.22 billion. Geico slashed its ad budget by 34% year-over-year to $838.2 million. Allstate cut its budget by 31% to $651.3 million.
State Farm was the only firm among the top four spenders whose ad budget was relatively flat, as its outlay dipped just 2% to $992 million.
Of course, it may be hard to tell that insurers have a diminished ad presence. When factoring in the numerous title/presenting sponsorships (pregame shows, halftime promotions, etc.) along with paid airtime, overall sports investment in the insurance category remains largely unchanged. State Farm has multiyear pacts with NFL vendors, meaning that those payouts are unlikely to vary season to season.
In email correspondence with Sportico, State Farm reiterated that it will not advertise in the Super Bowl, adding that it “will not have a presence in, and/or around, the game itself.” The company also said even before the wildfires compelled the decision on the Super Bowl commercial, it did not have any other activations planned for this year’s game.
The Bloomington, Ill.-based company is the largest insurer of both property and auto in California, according to the state’s Department of Insurance. Last March, State Farm decided to discontinue insurance coverage for over 70,000 homes and apartments in California and has not accepted new applications for business and personal lines of property and casualty insurance since this past July.
In a statement at the time, the company said the decision to reduce coverage in the state “was not made lightly and only after careful analysis of State Farm General’s financial health,” citing the impacts of inflation, catastrophe exposure because of climate events and “the limitations of working within decades-old insurance regulations.”
State Farm also noted the complications of reinsurance, which insurance companies have for themselves to protect against major financial losses.
“We are proud to report that our customer contact is over 95%,” the insurer said in an email. “As of Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025, we’ve received more than 10,400 home and auto claims, and we have already put well over half-a-billion dollars back into customers’ hands. These numbers will continue to rise as residents return and assess damage.”
Last year for CBS’ game telecast, State Farm aired a 60-second spot starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. Progressive, which aired its first Big Game advert last February, confirmed that it was not returning this year, while neither Geico nor Allstate have put out proper Super Bowl ads in almost a decade. Geico, in 2024, focused on the CBS pregame show with four lengthy mockumentary spots on its lizard mascot.
Airing the ads would have cost State Farm approximately $24 million this year—$14 million for buying two units of commercial airtime from Fox and about $10 million for creative costs.
The bulk of Super Bowl ad inventory was sold in August, but demand remained strong after Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch announced that the spots sold out in a third quarter investor call. According to Variety, several other sponsors besides State Farm asked to pull their ads in light of the wildfires. With the sudden openings and high demand from advertisers, Fox was able to sell at least 10 commercials appearing during the Super Bowl for more than $8 million.
It may be some time before the anger over canceling policies in California subsides, but State Farm will keep the controversy off the radar, albeit briefly, on the biggest advertising/branding day of the year. Further, the decision to pull the ad carries less weight as no other insurance brands are advertising in the game itself.
Since Jan. 7, wildfires have burned across 45 square miles of Los Angeles County, the most populous county in the U.S., and have been attributed to the deaths of at least 29 people.
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