State Farm cancels Super Bowl commercial due to ‘tragedy’ in Los Angeles

California’s largest insurer has scrapped a plan to air a commercial during the biggest TV broadcast of the year.

Via Alex Weprin of The Hollywood ReporterState Farm canceled his spot at the Super Bowl. The company cited the ongoing fires in Los Angeles.

“State Farm, its agents and employees are all focused on helping customers affected by the Southern California wildfires in the midst of this tragedy,” a spokesperson said, according to Weprin. “Our focus is firmly on supporting the citizens of Los Angeles. We will not advertise during the game as originally planned.”

State Farm has an 8.7 percent market share of the property insurance market in California. The company said it has received more than 7,400 requests for houses and cars to date.

“These numbers will continue to rise as residents return and assess the damage,” the spokesman said.

State Farm is accused of canceling thousands of fire insurance policies before the fires started. State Farm stopped accepting new applications for California business and personal property and casualty insurance in May 2023.

This is the basic problem of the entire insurance industry. Their only commodity is money, and they hope to collect as much as possible from premiums while paying out as few claims as possible.

Basically, then, the more someone needs insurance, the less likely they are to get it. Insurance companies would rather take cash from policyholders who will rarely, if ever, ask for any of it back.