Jake From State Farm and The Coneheads?
5 facts you didn't know about Jake from State Farm.
According to the one fan of this blog (shout out Josue) I need to chill out with the insurance talk. But here’s the thing Jo, insurance is more than a boring contract. In the world of advertising, it is a well-respected, often hilarious saga of great ads. So I issued no apologies when I told you all about my love for DDBO’s 2011 Jake From State Farm commercial last week. And without a drop of shame or embarrassment, I present to you 5 facts I bet you didn’t know about The State Farm legacy.
1. Jake is just a normal guy
Just like the commercial wants you to believe Jake from State Farm is a real-life insurance agent — not an actor. Jake Stone was peer pressured by his then-roommate to attend the company-wide casting call in his hometown of Bloomington, Illinois. In no time, this very normal 26-year-old was being flown out to California for test shots.
This was Jake’s first and only professional acting credit and while he is a celebrity in my book, he stays humble. In an interview with Pantagraph at the height of his fame, he told reporter Ben Flick “I’m just putting on my khakis, one leg at a time.”
2. Jake is not dead.
The internet is a cesspool of rumors and one of those nasty untruths tried to kill off Jake Stone. In a 2015 Huzlers article, Jake was accused of being unfaithful to his wife and then murdered in cold blood over his infidelity.
A few red flags come up when you read the article. Firstly is the bio of the author of the post, Pablo Reyes Jr, that reads: “Believe half of what you see and nothing you read online.” The second and arguably the most glaring is that Huzlers is a well-known satirical news site. And while the article was written for laughs, real news outlets like USA Today picked up the story and ran it nationwide. This caused a small panic on Twitter that the official Jake From State Farm Twitter account would have to calm.
While this story was quickly proven false, rumors of Jake's death resurfaced once more this year when new actor Kevin Miles replaced Jake Stone in the revival of the commercial. Despite Stone making a guest appearance in the debut spot, there are people out there who still think the original Jake is dead.
3. Two Jakes, one office!
Attention to detail makes the nerds at AdAge (and me) beam ear to ear. The first State Farm commercial was filmed in Bloomington, Illinois and if you take a close look at the bottom of the new commercials it reads: Bloomington, Illinois. **Gasp!**
4. DDB isn’t responsible for this resurrection.
DDB ran the original ad in 2011 (and weird coneheads relaunch in 2015) but it was The Marketing Arm that relaunched Jake 2020. The Marketing Arm is no stranger to State Farm and had launched the company’s Neighborhood of Good guerilla campaign in 2017.
Ad geeks like me aren’t shocked by this news as DDB and The Marketing Arm are both agencies under Omnicom. “While The Marketing Arm is now our creative lead agency, DDB will continue to be an important partner in our agency roster,” Media Specialis Morss-Fischer said. “Our relationship with them is intact, their assignment is just changing.”
5. You didn’t think I was going to mention coneheads and leave right?
A million years ago — 1978 to be exact — SNL and a young Steve Martin debuted The Coneheads. A family of aliens trying to fit into the mecca of suburbia, New Jersey. The Coneheads became a running gag on the show and eventually, the 90’s cinematic masterpiece “The Coneheads” was released. But what does that have to do with our beloved Jake? Well, fast forward a few decades, and The Coneheads were introduced to Jake and The State Farm family in 2015. Check out the insanity below.
And there you have it. 5 new facts to impress all your insurance commercial-loving friends — because I'm sure I'm not the only one.
