State Farm drops Super Bowl ad plans after wildfires

State Farm has decided not to air an ad during Super Bowl LIX next month.

“Our focus is firmly on providing support to the people of Los Angeles,” a company spokesperson told FOX Business on Thursday. “We will not advertise during the game as originally planned.”

State Farm announced in March 2024 that it would drop coverage on 72,000 California home and condo policies in the summer. (John Greim/LightRocket via Getty Images/File)

The insurer’s decision, first reported by Ad Age, comes as the Los Angeles area has struggled with wildfires that have left at least 25 people dead since Jan. 7. The flames from the largest fire, the Palisades Fire, have damaged or destroyed about 5,000 buildings alone.

Super Bowl LIX is scheduled to take place on February 9 in New Orleans. Advertising slots during the championship game are highly sought after each year.

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State Farm and its agents and employees are “all focused on helping customers affected by the Southern California wildfires in the midst of this tragedy,” the State Farm spokesman said.

“State Farm serves more (than) 8 million customers in California — more than any other insurance company — and we’ve been doing this for nearly 100 years,” the spokesperson told FOX Business. “Our claims force is the largest in the industry, and we bring the full scale and power of our disaster response teams to help customers recover — whether they’re on the ground in LA or across the country.”

The insurer has filed more than 7,850 home and auto claims and “put about $50 million back in the hands of customers” as of Thursday morning, according to the spokesman. It expects those numbers to rise “as residents return and assess damage.”

More than 1 million homes and 4 million vehicles are insured by State Farm in the Golden State, including 250,000 homes and 880,000 cars in Los Angeles County, according to the company.

State Farm announced in March 2024 that it would drop coverage on 72,000 California home and condo policies in the summer. The company cited inflation, regulatory costs and increasing risk of disasters for its decision and had previously stopped accepting new applications in the state.

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Earlier this week, the company said Los Angeles-area homeowners with policies “on the books” Jan. 7 that have been affected by the wildfires would receive policy renewal offers, putting the brakes on the “homeowner non-renewal notification process.” in the areas affected by the flames.

Three of the wildfires active in the Los Angeles area have been raging for more than a week. Those flames — the Palisades, Eaton and Hurst fires — were 22%, 55% and 98% contained, respectively, as of Thursday afternoon as of Thursday afternoon. Cal Fire. Another fire that started in Ventura County on Monday is 85% contained.

A firefighting plane makes a drop on the Palisades Fire in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles on January 7. (Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

This view shows the destruction of the Palisades fire in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles on Saturday. (Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images/Getty Images)

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Almost 38,700 hectares have been burned by the four fires.

Eric Revell contributed to this report.