State Farm cancels Super Bowl ad over California wildfires

Insurance giant State Farm has canceled a Super Bowl ad that was set to air during the big game in February — in part, it said, over the raging wildfires in California.

“Our focus is firmly on providing support to the people of Los Angeles. We will not be advertising during the game as originally planned,” a spokesperson said Friday in an emailed statement to The Hill.

The insurance company said it is serving more than 8 million customers in California and added that its agents and other employees “are all focused on helping customers impacted by the Southern California wildfires in the midst of this tragedy.”

In 2022, the average cost of a Super Bowl LVI 30-second commercial was $6.5 million, according to a 2024 report from market research firm Kantar. The cost for those ads in 2024 was reaching $7 million.

State Farm said in the statement it has received more than 8,300 home and auto claims related to the Los Angeles fires and has “put well over $50 Million back into customers’ hands.”

“These numbers will rise as residents return and assess damage,” a State Farm spokesperson wrote.

In late May 2023, State Farm announced it would stop offering property and home insurance to new customers in California, pointing to the “historic increases in construction costs outpacing inflation, rapidly growing catastrophe exposure, and a challenging reinsurance market.”

Apart from State Farm, other insurance companies have also reduced coverage in California, in part due to the rising reconstruction costs and bigger payouts.

“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,” the State Farm spokesperson said.

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