About
Jake from State Farm refers to the insurance agent featured in a commercial of the “Get to a better State” campaign commercials for the American insurance company State Farm. The commercial features a husband being misunderstood to be cheating while making a phone call to the insurance agent Jake. Upon its airing in June 2011, the commercial became a parody typically used to convey individuals who are caught in misunderstandings, as well as quoted in online conversations.
Origin
The insurance company State Farm released a commercial from their campaign titled “State of Unrest,” in which 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, she grabs the phone and asks what “Jake” is wearing. The scene cuts to a call center where Jake answers sheepishly, “Uh, khakis.” (shown below).
Spread
The commercial spawned an official twitter handle for Jake from State Farm [1] since February 2013, which has an approximate total of 33,400 followers.
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 the lyrics, 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”
The video has also spawned parodies in social media websites, notably on Vine[3] and YouTube[4].
Identity
On September 07, 2011 WMBD- TV news station interviewed the actor who played the insurance agent. [5] He was identified as Jake Stone from Normal, Illinois, working as an actual agent in the State Farm call center in Bloomington.
Also on September 1, 2011, Jake Stone was interviewed by the Pantagrapgh newspaper addressing his spiraling fame since his debut in the commercial. [6] Jake Stone has since then been working two jobs, from the call center and the Pub he was working at named Pub II, also in Normal, Illinois.
Pantagraph reported on Jake Stone once more in April 20, 2014, reporting on the khakis which hang on the wall at Pub II.[7]
External References
[1]Twitter – @JakeStateFarm
[3]Vine – #ItsJakeFromStateFarm
[4]YouTube – Jake from state farm
[5]CIProud – State Farm Employee Featured in National Ad
[6]The Pantagrapgh – A budding TV ‘star’ and his khakis too!
[7]The Pantagrapgh – Jake’s not just at State Farm anymore