If you’re going to trust anyone to have an authoritative scientific stance on vaccines, the guy who starred in a film as a fish tank cleaner-turned-successful-male-prostitute is definitely it. State Farm feels differently— they pulled their commercial starring comedian Rob Schneider after his anti-vaccination stance inspired mass social media outcry.
Schneider had revived his character "Richmeister" for a series of SNL-themed adsthat State Farm began running last month. Soon afterward, the company was faced with enormous Facebook and Twitter backlash over their decision to employ someone with a viewpoint so detrimental to public health.
State Farm’s director of Public Affairs, Phil Supple, told PR Week that the "ad has unintentionally been used as a platform for discussion unrelated to the products and services we provide. With that, we are working to remove the ad From our rotation at this time."
