There have been a few people who have talked about this commercial on some forums and such, but the conversation has made me laugh. They talk about the inaccuracies, goofiness, etc, and apparently, lots didn’t realize it was shot at Auto Club Raceway Pomona, home of the NHRA Winternationals and World Finals. The commercial is goofy, and nobody with half a brain cell would think they were trying to be accurate or serious in the commercial, so I’m not sure why that would bother anyone. There are all kinds of inaccuracies and funny stuff that would be more at home with other forms of motorsports. But again, that’s not the part that makes me laugh. I’ll be the negative Nelly here and explain.
There are several very easily recognized dragstrips in the United States, and Pomona is one of them. It’s also one of the most expensive to rent for something like this. Clearly, Allstate has a big budget, and given the way they shot the commercial maybe it still makes sense to do it where the cost is so high. But there are plenty of other big dragstrips that could have been used that aren’t sponsored, and named for, a competing insurance company. This is the part that immediately made me do a double-take. With that said, maybe the LA County Fairgrounds and NHRA needed the money since they hadn’t been able to have events. Or maybe this thing got shot before COVID. Who knows.
What I do know, is that the coupe in the commercial is owned by the folks at Chino Hills Transmissions. They are good people, support lots of Southern California drag racing, and build a stout transmission to boot. They are the ones that did the build on the 4L80E that is in Ethyl, so it is cool to see their car on a major tv commercial like this.
Anyway, enjoy the commercial and let us know what you think.
Probably lots of CGI involved and a short half day rental. I personally love it.
Insurance companies’ advertising has been a race to the bottom for years and my chagrin with such nonsense has caused me to switch companies twice in the last six years.
I deal with an agriculturally based company now; no advertising, just reasonable rates, great service and the practical approach to business exemplified by American farmers.
. . . all that said, the Pizza Girl meets Jake from State Farm commercial is pretty clever.
Differentiating yourself to the consumer from other companies in the insurance business is like if you were selling water, hard to do by touting product benefits and detail differences, so creative and entertaining ads seem to be how it’s done these days. I’m for it, have a laugh and don’t nit-pick.
It’s better than con-man-preaching such as “Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there”, and then after you’ve been with them 30 years they burn you and skip town.
Pomona has made a lot of changes over the years (while becoming a little too slick for my taste) but there are still those San Gabriel Mountains in the background.
The Nova of Paul Soliz is a beautiful car..without the stick-on graphics used in the commercial, but wouldn’t hang with the Chino Hills car for very long.
They probably filmed it before covid and during one of the NHRA races, with fans in the seats. They did not change the name of the raceway, they just edited the advertising to say “Allstate…”