In my early days as a STATE FARM 
AGENT, I often attended the annual “Professional Sales Institute” held by State Farm at Albion College, in Albion, Michigan. After a day of classes, one of the great things available to participants was the Olympic-size pool we got to use in the evenings .
As you might imagine, some insurance agents aren’t in the best physical shape. On one particular evening, several of us “larger-than-life” agents were in the pool at the same time. In addition to discussions about the rise in the water level, we all noted that the lifeguard was a tiny college coed. Soaking wet, she might have weighed 90 lbs. The thought occurred to us we might be in trouble if she had to jump in and save us. In my mind, it was like sending a minnow to save a whale.
The “Save the whales” talk sparked the idea for the cartoon. You might have noted from the cartoon that the section we were in was only 4 feet deep. Maybe we weren’t in as much peril as we thought… if, for some reason we weren’t able to stand up, she could have dragged us to shore!