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Written byEvelyn Pimplaskar
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Evelyn PimplaskarEditor-in-Chief, Director of Content
10+ years in insurance and personal finance content
30+ years in media, PR, and content creation
Evelyn leads Insurify’s content team. She’s passionate about creating empowering content to help people transform their financial lives and make sound insurance-buying decisions.
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Edited byJohn Leach
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John LeachLicensed P&C Agent, Chief Copy Editor
Licensed property and casualty insurance agent
10+ years editing experience
NPN: 20461358
John is Insurify’s Chief Copy Editor, helping ensure the accuracy and readability of Insurify’s content. He’s a licensed agent specializing in home and car insurance topics.
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Table of contents
Table of contents
Editorial disclaimer
This article is an independent and (hopefully) humorous “review” of a parody advertising campaign. It isn’t affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by State Farm. “Halfway There Insurance” is a fictional brand used for entertainment. Spoiler alert: We find the ad promo spots we’ve seen to be highly entertaining.
If you’ve never heard of Halfway There Insurance, just wait. After Sunday, Feb. 8, millions of Americans will likely be asking, “Is Halfway There Insurance legit?”
Halfway There Insurance is a fictitious company. The brainchild of State Farm marketers, Halfway There Insurance will play a leading role in the real insurance company’s ad during the Big Game. The spot features standout performances by two comedy giants and makes an important point about insurance shopping.
Here’s what to know about Halfway There Insurance and how to spot a truly legit insurance company.
Quick Facts
State Farm is one of the biggest insurance companies in the U.S., and we think this commercial will be one of the best Big Game insurance ads ever.
The Halfway There Insurance guys join a long and storied list of funny insurance mascots, from Jake and Flo to the gecko and a bunch of cultured cavemen.
State Farm’s commercial uses humor to convey a critical message: A company’s street cred is more important than flashy performances and cheap rates.
Our take on Halfway There Insurance
If Halfway There Insurance were a real company (it isn’t), it’s possible someone would want to buy a policy from it. The promotions we’ve seen are funny and borrow cachet, not to mention music, from one of our favorite advertising eras.
But it’s doubtful anyone would stay with the company for long. The ad makes it clear that Halfway There Insurance would be more focused on customer acquisition and running your credit card than on answering the phone or paying out claims.
It’s an over-the-top representation of a real challenge consumers face. With so many insurance companies out there, shoppers can find it difficult to tell which ones are “legit” and will meet their needs.
Our advice? Check out the kind of credentials Halfway There Insurance is sure to lack: AM Best ratings, J.D. Power scores, comparison site reviews, and real user reviews.
Expert Insight
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Matt Brannon
Senior Economic Analyst, Insurance, Insurify
The topic of affordability is resonating across the country, and this ad could strike a chord with drivers looking to save. It’s a reminder that picking the right insurance policy is a consequential choice, and not one you should play by ear.
How (we think) real customers would feel about Halfway There Insurance
If we had to guess, we’d say real Halfway There customers would be a long way from happy with the insurer or its coverage. Fortunately, we don’t have to guess. We see real customer reviews all the time for legit companies that fall short in some of the areas that the ad parody spotlights:
Difficult-to-understand coverage descriptions
Murky policy limits that don’t fully protect policyholders financially
Low prices that sacrifice critical coverages
Good customer service when enrolling for a policy, but poor claims processing
We typically rate insurance companies in categories like customer service, claims handling, and overall experience based on thousands of ratings and reviews we collect from real insurance customers. Scores are based on a 5-point system.
Lacking any real user reviews for a not-real insurance company, here’s our best guess at how Halfway There Insurance would do in some key areas:
Category | Average Score |
|---|---|
| Rad ’80s hairstyling | 5 |
| Pyrotechnics | 4.5 |
| Coverage options | 1.5 |
| Lyrical relevance | 5 |
| Customer service | 0.5 |
| Parody value | 5++ |
What would Halfway There Insurance cost?
We don’t have any actual price data for Halfway There Insurance (because it’s not a real company). But we can estimate less quantifiable “costs” than just a low premium.
Buying a policy from a company that puts flash and fun ahead of coverage and customer service could leave you underinsured. You could get into a car accident, suffer storm damage to your home, or total your bicycle, only to find that your Halfway There policy excludes coverage for those circumstances. In such a situation, you’d be on the hook for any costs your policy doesn’t cover.
Although the Halfway There guys seem to be having a rockin’ good time, there’s nothing humorous about the consequences of buying cheap insurance. That’s exactly the point the parody aims to make.
Filing a (pretend) claim with Halfway There Insurance
Some companies do a great job managing claims. They offer 24/7 claims service and the ability to file online, through an app, or over the phone, as well as processing and paying claims quickly. That’s probably not the experience you could expect from Halfway There (if it were a real company, which it’s not).
Here are the likely steps for filing a claim with Halfway There Insurance:
Place a call, and go immediately on hold.
Step away from the phone to make dinner while bopping to ’80s-inspired hold music.
Check hold music.
Eat dinner.
Check hold music.
Do the dishes.
Start, manage, and complete kids’ bedtime routines.
Check hold music.
Give up. Hang up.
Try again tomorrow.
Halfway There Insurance Review FAQs
By now, it’s hopefully clear that Halfway There Insurance isn’t a real insurance company, and this isn’t a real insurance company review. But if you still have questions, we offer the following made-up answers.
Why does the ad have an ’80s theme?
We’d like to say it’s because the 1980s were the Golden Age of humorous insurance commercials. But after a quick online search, we discovered some of the best ads came out in the ’90s and 2000s. So the ’80s theme might just be because it was one of the best eras in American music history.
Who plays the Halfway There Insurance guys?
Keegan-Michael Key and Danny McBride play the Halfway There Insurance “representatives that just can’t quite deliver,” State Farm says on its website. Hailee Steinfeld portrays the prospective Halfway There customer.
Why is it so hard to buy insurance?
Buying insurance can be difficult when you try to get multiple quotes from individual insurance companies on your own, when you don’t fully understand what coverage you need, and when insurance policy terms and conditions are confusing. Drivers often use comparison platforms to avoid a “halfway there” experience.
Is being underinsured really that big of a problem in the U.S.?
It really is. In 2023, 18% of American drivers were underinsured, and more than 15% had no auto insurance at all, according to the Insurance Research Council. When an underinsured or uninsured driver causes an accident, they don’t have the insurance they need to fully pay for the damages or injuries they cause. That raises rates for everyone. Plus, driving without insurance is illegal in every state except New Hampshire.
Where can you see real reviews of actual insurance companies?
Right here. Insurify collects user reviews from people who successfully compare quotes through our process. And we provide independent, expertly researched reviews of real insurance companies.
Is Halfway There Insurance legit?
No. Halfway There Insurance is a parody brand State Farm marketers created for an ad during the Big Game. It’s not a licensed insurance company, and you won’t be able to buy a Halfway There policy.
Why did Halfway There Insurance show up during the Big Game?
Insurance companies know how many people feel about insurance. Brands often use humor and parody during the Big Game to grab attention and spark conversation.
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Evelyn PimplaskarEditor-in-Chief, Director of Content
Evelyn Pimplaskar is Insurify’s director of content. With 30-plus years in content creation – including 10 years specializing in personal finance – Evelyn’s done everything from covering volatile local elections as a beat reporter to building fintech content libraries from the ground up.
Before joining Insurify, she was editor-in-chief at Credible, where she launched and developed the lending marketplace’s media partnership’s content initiative and managed the restructuring of the editorial team to enhance content production efficiency. Formerly, as tax editor for Credit Karma, Evelyn built a library of more than 300 educational articles on federal and state taxes, achieving triple-digit year-over-year growth in e-files from organic search.
Her early career included work as a content marketer, vice president and managing officer of a boutique public relations agency, chief copy editor for 14 weekly Forbes publications, reporting for large and mid-sized daily newspapers, and freelancing for the Associated Press.
Evelyn is passionate about creating personal finance content that distills complex topics into relatable, easy-to-understand stories. She believes great content helps empower readers with the information they need to make important personal finance decisions.
John LeachLicensed P&C Agent, Chief Copy Editor
Licensed property and casualty insurance agent
10+ years editing experience
NPN: 20461358
John is Insurify’s Chief Copy Editor, helping ensure the accuracy and readability of Insurify’s content. He’s a licensed agent specializing in home and car insurance topics.
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