Entry 6: Mayhem

One of my favorite commercial series ever is Allstate's "Mayhem" ads. They feature Dean Winters (Dennis from 30 Rock, anyone?) as a variety of characters and forces that eventually damage a car or home in a way that may not be covered by "your current cut rate insurance." They include a storm, an irresponsible teenage son, a rich executive, and a toddler. 

Yes!

My personal favorite is the "teenage girl," probably because that'll be me in about 6 months (get off the roads while you can). 

This guy's deadpan is great. "Now, I'm emotionally compromised, and...whoopsies." It basically describes the complete existence of every teenage girl to ever live. Because for real, Becky is not even hot. Using a real comedy actor was a good call on Allstate's part, it makes the commercials genuinely funny and worth watching. 

The humor of these ads is a way to lighten the mood, because when it comes down to it, they're showing you a bunch of scenarios where people's houses and cars get seriously messed up. That's generally not a positive thing, and while pulling on heartstrings is a widely used approach in advertising, insurance commercials that go that direction are usually shrugged off with "eh, that wouldn't happen to me." 

Underneath the humor there is major plain folks being employed in these ads both individually and as a series. We have toddlers and teenage children, hating on a rich, boss-type guy, buying a Christmas tree with your family, dealing with a GPS recalculating, snow piling up on your roof, your sports team's flag, a hot female jogger distracting you...sounds like you're a 30-50 year old upper middle class male living in a suburban area with a desk job and a family with kids. Just a normal family man. Who is more perfect as an insurance company's target market? They have everything to lose, and need to protect their expensive possessions. Using a young/middle-aged white guy to do their commercials is an attempt to reach their target market with a metaphorical fist bump. 

The plain folks is even more concrete than the "average" target market. At the beginning of the commercial he says, "I am a teenage girl." It always starts that way: "I am a storm, I am  a filthy rich executive," etc. etc. They never tack on any specific labels to the mayhem of the day so people can easily apply them to their own lives. 

The other obvious technique used is wit and humor. These ads are entertaining and funny, making the company seem like more of a good guy than big companies usually do. This is really important for an insurance company, because we need to feel secure with and trust them to have them as our insurance.

The need to feel safe is definitely appealed to here. Although they make it funny, these little stories are designed to make you paranoid. Mayhem comes in many forms, and is unexpected and unstoppable. You need insurance or else you'll be at risk of so many domestic disasters! Don't worry though, Allstate's got you covered. 

Thanks buddy.

The message of these commercials is pretty simple, and unlike a lot of concrete products, insurance companies are pretty much all exactly the same. They can't base their marketing campaigns on things that only mean "the best" because when it comes to this stuff everyone has a different idea of what the best is. So, it becomes even less about the product that other kinds of advertising, and the approach is what's most important. The mayhem commercials put a new, funny spin the well-worn idea that we need to protect ourselves, and for that reason I think they're really good.