The arrival of a new National Football League season means, among other things, the arrival of new commercials from the insurers and beer makers and wireless carriers who spend lavishly to reach the television audience that professional football still reliably delivers.
State Farm, the insurance giant based in Bloomington, Ill., is marking the occasion with a campaign that began on Wednesday, introducing fresh talent to the ensemble that has gathered around Jake from State Farm, the fictional agent who has become something of a recurring character in American living rooms.
The new spots feature Cam Skattebo, the running back for the New York Giants, and Fernando Mendoza, the quarterback for the Las Vegas Raiders, joining returning players Patrick Mahomes, the Kansas City Chiefs quarterback, and Andy Reid, the Chiefs' head coach, who has appeared in State Farm commercials for several years now.
The campaign's message concerns what the company calls personalization — the notion that insurance coverage can be tailored to individual circumstances rather than sold off the rack. (What, you were expecting the ads to say, "We offer the same policy to everyone"?)
The spots use humor and what State Farm describes as "distinct creative storylines," which is to say that Jake from State Farm will appear in various scenarios designed to demonstrate attentive service, including one in which he serves as a run blocker for a customer navigating the football season.
State Farm has been among the more visible advertisers in professional football for many years, part of a category — insurance — that has made the N.F.L. broadcast a kind of weekly convention for mascots, spokesmen and fictional employees. The gecko, the emu, Flo and Jake now occupy adjacent real estate in the commercial breaks, each trying to suggest that choosing an insurer is a decision requiring more thought than most viewers probably give it.
The new campaign arrives as the football season does: on schedule, more or less as expected, ready to do its job.
Original story published in adweek.com: "State Farm’s Football Campaign Taps Skattebo and Mahomes in Personalization Play"