Jake from State Farm

About

Jake from State Farm refers to an insurance agent featured in a commercial during the "Get to a Better State" campaign for the American insurance company State Farm. The commercial features a wife accusing a husband of cheating as he makes a phone call to the insurance agent, Jake. After the commercial's initial airing, the commercial became used as a response video in online forums to refer to those caught in misunderstandings.

Origin

In the original commercial, first aired in June 2011, a husband is caught by his wife making a suspicious phone call at 3 a.m. to an unknown receiver. The husband insists on it being a State Farm insurance agent named “Jake”. Skeptical, the wife grabs the phone and asks what "Jake" is wearing. The scene cuts to a call center where Jake answers sheepishly, "Uh, khakis." (shown below).

Identity

On September 7th, 2011 WMBD- TV news station interviewed the insurance agent from the commercial. ^[5] He was identified as Jake Stone from Normal, Illinois, and he worked in the State Farm call center in Bloomington.

On September 1st, 2011, Stone was interviewed by the Pantagraph newspaper addressing his increasing local fame since his debut in the commercial.^[6] Stone mentioned that he worked two jobs: both the call center and also a bar named Pub II in Normal, Illinois.

Pantagraph reported on Jake Stone once more in April 20, 2014, mentioning that the khakis from the commercial now hang on the wall at Pub II.^[7]

Spread

The commercial spawned an official Twitter handle for Jake from State Farm ^[1] in February 2013, which has approximately 33,400 followers as of April 2015.

In July 2014, State Farm released a radio commercial as a followup to the original commercial. This time the couple visit a marriage counselor over the dispute.

On August 11, 2014, American rapper DJ Mustard released his album titled 10 Summers, which included the song “4 Digits” on the track list. The song uses the phrase in its lyrics, during the verse sung by American rapper Fabolous ^[2] (shown below).

[Verse 3: Fabolous]
“You know I be on the phone talkin’ real late to ‘em
She be walkin’ real late on me, getting straight to ‘em
I be like "okay baby stay calm, it’s just Jake from State Farm"

On April 27, 2015, State Farm released a modified version of the commercial promoting an event for May 11th with the hashtag #TuneInEarthlings

On May 11, 2015, State Farm released another version of the commercial for their promotional event with the hashtag #TuneInEarthlings. The commercial features characters from the movie Coneheads.

The video has also spawned parodies in social media websites, notably on Vine^[3] and YouTube^[4].

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References