They can stick to their guns all they want, but they forget that they are a mutual company - not a stock. They answer (in theory at least), to policyholders.

Per the NR article, they are "allocating" this to only about 550 or so agents, but they are putting at risk the livelihoods of 1000s of other agents because they are pissing off the customer base. (There are 18,000 State Farm agents in the US.) I am in the industry, so for those contacting their agents, I suggest keeping these things in mind.

1. Remind the agent that SF is a mutual company (ergo they answer to policyholders).
2. We are in a hard insurance market, which means premiums are up and it is harder to write new business. In addition, we are in a time where inflation is rapidly on the rise. (I saw this morning that inflation is costing the average American family $311/month.) SF spending money on this rather than putting it back into the company to benefit policyholders who are getting squeezed from all angles? Great optics. When the agent tells you that part of the reason you are paying a higher premium on your homeowners this year is that the cost of building materials has gone up (which is true and legitimate BTW), ask your agent if the Actuaries figured those costs before or after this little campaign was set in motion. Because the reality is, even if this was a book to promote the benefits of owning a pet, right now, SF should be using money to assist policyholders as much as possible. Not to fund some home office marketing VP's DEI project for Pride month.

The reality is it is probably a drop in the bucket, but again, optics do count. The point here is to drive home the fact that 'get woke, go broke' is a very real phenomenon and it is at your doorstep. Trust me, most agents are pretty conservative and they especially do not like it when their book is at risk. They start losing enough business over stunts like this, that will get back to the home office and it will be loud. I am sure the 3% are thrilled to participate but the screws need to be put to the other 97% enough where they start to speak up rather than just go with the flow.

*Some markets may have very limited options. In CA, SF is writing a ton because others are pulling out and in some instances they are the only viable option. They are playing a volume numbers game and IMHO, a risky one. People I know working in P&C are waiting for the other shoe to drop though because they won't be able to continue this forever, especially if we have a bad fire season. If you are thinking about a change, make sure you are able to do that first.