European phone in US TV commercial?

[Adam]

This one bothers me every time I see it.  Has anyone else noticed this?

This TV commercial for State Farm Insurance has been running for quite awhile on US TV.  However, the wall phone Jimmy's mom is waiting on hold on is not an American phone, it's obviously european.

There's no telling why this strange (for the US) phone appears in an American TV commercial.  The actors and locations are obviously American, and State Farm is an American insurance company, with operations, according to Wikipedia, also in Canada.

But that's not a phone you'd see in Canada, either, is it?  Anybody know specifically from what country this phone is?

[Owain]

It looks like a German Siemens S300054 side dial, but again a desk phone.

Half-way down
http://www.henderson-tele.com/vtm/de/brd/dbp-1960-1989.html

[Adam]

Thanks, Owain!

I was actually thinking, from its appearance, that it might be just a desk phone stuck up on the wall for the TV commercial set.  You never see the phone on the hook, Jimmy's mom is always holding the receiver.  That makes it even weirder!

[Owain]

She'd probably have to stand on a chair to dial a number using those varifocals ...

[Phonesrfun]

Not wanting to take this off topic, but almost all the insurance commercials these days are incredibly obnoxious.  Geico, State Farm, Allstate, Progressive....  I find it even worse when they all get on the TV after recent natural disasters and tout how wonderful they are.  It smacks of ambulance chasing in my mind.

I think they are all competing for the most bang for the buck by being the most obnoxious, and therefore memorable.  It even pains me that my insurance carrier is one of those I mentioned.

Perhaps the big glasses, the wallpaper, the green rotary dial phone, and being on hold are all images of an inept and out of date mom.  In other words Jimmy just ain't with it.  To be with it, you have to have an insurance agent that can vanish.  Go figure that one out.

The funky looking phone was probably chosen for its looks only.  They probably could care less if it was accurate.

[poplar1]

Some phones (don't know about this one) can be used on a desk or the wall. Often this involves disassembling the phone and turning the base 180 degrees so that it is wider at the bottom instead of the top. However, on tv shows and commercials, this is rarely done. Maybe it works for short people but otherwise i guess you have to sit down to dial.

Then there are shows like L. A. Law with Merlin desk sets and 2851 (1A2) wall sets in the same office.

[AE_Collector]

One wouldn't see that phone in Canada typically either but then we don't see State Farm Insurance here either.

Terry