Starring in TV commercial no snap, says State Farm agent George Pomey

Pomey was an athlete, coach and announcer but found doing a 30-second TV ad the most strenuous challenge of all.

Starring in TV commercial no snap,
says State Farm agent George Pomey

By RICK HAGLUND

NEWS BUSINESS REPORTOR

George Pomey Jr. has done a lot
of strenuous things in his life.

He starred on the 1963-65 Univer-
sity of Michigan baskeball teams
with All-Americans Bill Buntin and
Cazzie Russell. He also coached U-
M's freshman basketball team for
a time and has announced dozens,
of college basketball games on ra-
dio and television.

But those endeavors were noth-
ing compared to the effort of film-
ing a 30-second television commer-
cial for State Farm Insurance.

"It was one of the more grueling
things I've ever gone through,"
said Pomey, who has been a State
Farm agent for 16 years. "I was so
physically exhausted by the time
we were through. It was only 3:30
(p.m.) and I was ready to go to bed
and take a nap."

Pomey was selected by State
Farm last year to be featured in
one of the company's national tele-
vision advertisements, which uses
agents to talk about insurance pro-
grams. He was chosen because the
company thought he would "film
well," not for his past broadcast
achievements.

Agents are required to be "ama-
teurs," and Pomey had to testify
that he hadn't participated in ad-
vertisements for other companies
before filming for State Farm. He
is the first agent in Michigan to ap-
pear in a nationwide State Farm
commercial.

The advertisement was filmed
last November at Pomey's home —
in his garage - and is now appear-
ing on network television stations.
It is scheduled for a slot today dur-
ing the Illinois-Georgia Tech bas-
ketball game on CBS and for
March 19 during NBC's "Heaven
Can Wait" show. The commercial
will run periodically for about
three months, he said.

Pomey's advertisement pro-
motes State Farm's family insur-
ance checkup program. In it be
hangs up an old wagon and remi-
nisces about his daughter, who is
now a junior in high school.

"My daughter used to ride in
this. Now, she drives around in
this," he says, pointing to the fam-
ily car.

Pomey said there were a variety
of difficulties in filming the com-
mercial. He was crammed into his
garage with a car and a camera
mounted on tracks. And he had to
repeat his lines again and again.
He continually said "fire insur-
ance" instead of the more comfort-
ing phrase, "home insurance,"
which the production company told
him to say. (State Farm now sells
"home insurance," but the com-
pany logo still identifies it as fire
insurance).

And when he successfully com-
pleted a segment, he often was
asked to do it over again with dif-
ferent word inflections. The 39-sec-

POMEY

CONTINUED FROM B5

ond commercil took seven hours
to complete.
"I had to go over the same line
again and again," he said.

Pomey was first selected among
Midwest State Farm agents to do a
commercial about three years ago.
At the time, State Farm was fea-
turing both agents and clients in its
advertisements. But shortly before
Pomey's commercial was sched-
uled for filming, the company can-
celed it.

Michigan was in a deep econom-
ic recession then. Pomey said State
Farm decided that the state's eco-
nomic and insurance climate
wasn't right, so it canceled the
commercial.

Pomey isn't getting rich from his
efforts. He said he's supposed to
get some small royalties, and he
was given some cash by the film
crew to pay for expenses. "It came
out to be two dollars less than the
phone bill," he said, chuckling.

But Pomey said doing the com-
mercial was worth it. if only to give
him a better understanding of how
the advertisements are made.

"I appreciate what goes into
those commercials more " he said.

See POMEY, B7