State Farm Spends Big on Super Bowl Ad While Failing Policyholders
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 6, 2026
Contact: contact@insurancefairnessproject.com
State Farm Spends Big on Super Bowl Ad While Failing Policyholders
Families Still Struggling After Climate Disasters Highlight Need for Accountability and Reform
State Farm is spending millions on a 60-second Super Bowl ad – and according to the company’s head of marketing, it’s designed to make customers “feel confident in their insurance” and not like they’re “living on a prayer.” But for families still waiting on delayed, denied, or lowballed claims after climate disasters, confidence doesn’t come from commercials, it comes from insurers doing what they promised when disaster strikes.
The campaign arrives as households across the country continue to struggle in the aftermath of the July 4 floods in Texas, wildfires in Los Angeles, and Hurricane Helene. In those communities, many policyholders report months-long delays, disputed damage assessments, and payouts that fall far short of what is needed to rebuild. For families living through the aftermath of those disasters, trust isn’t rebuilt by a Super Bowl commercial, it’s rebuilt when insurers pay claims quickly and fairly.
"My family has been loyal to State Farm, our insurance company, and has faithfully paid for them decades,” said LA wildfire survivor Elisa Jacobs-Nixon. “After the Eaton Fire damaged my Altadena home of 20 years with toxic contaminants and rendered it completely unlivable, State Farm has been the opposite of supportive. They minimized the damage, contradicted independent experts, undervalued nearly everything we owned, delayed essential payments, and even implied we might be responsible for bringing toxins into our home that contaminated the area behind our own walls. That came as a slap in the face....Today, my family still hasn’t made it back home, and the emotional and financial toll on all of us has been profound."
Of course, egregious ad spending by insurers is not limited to State Farm. Across the industry, insurers pour billions of dollars into U.S. advertising each year, much of that into television commercials. In 2023, the total ad spending for the four largest property insurers (Progressive, Geico, State Farm, and Allstate) was around $1 billion. These massive buys happen all while the U.S. home insurance crisis continues to grow, and people continue to be failed by insurers.
Independent ratings data shows that large U.S. property insurers closed nearly half of homeowner claims in 2024 without paying a single dollar, leaving families stranded after devastating losses. State Farm in particular has been singled out for criticism in several states, including in California, where the company has been accused of mishandling and delaying payments to survivors of the Los Angeles fires.
“The recent LA wildfire claims surge, combined with years of denied claims and skyrocketing marketing budgets, underscores the urgent need for reform,” said Lizzy Price, a spokesperson for the Insurance Fairness Project. “Lawmakers and regulators have an opportunity and a responsibility to ensure insurance companies prioritize protection over promotion.”
If insurers truly want customers to “feel confident,” there is a clear blueprint and health insurance already provides a model. Under the Affordable Care Act, health insurers must comply with Medical Loss Ratio (MLR) rules, which require that they spend at least 80 to 85% of premiums on actual care and quality improvement, rather than executive pay or overhead. Medical insurers that fail this requirement must issue rebates to consumers.
Similar standards are long overdue for home insurance. Proposed reforms include:
Minimum Loss Ratios for Property and Auto Insurance: States should require insurers to spend a minimum percentage of premiums on coverage and claims, not ads and overhead.
Automatic Disaster Payouts: In declared disasters, insurers should pay at least 60% of a claim upfront to help families recover quickly, with itemization finalized later.
Consumer-Focused Alternatives to Tort Reform: Speedy claim payouts reduce litigation and deliver real relief to policyholders, rather than shielding insurers from accountability.
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The Insurance Fairness Project is an information hub dedicated to offering insights into the home insurance crisis, exploring its drivers and highlighting solutions alongside issue experts and community advocates.
