Jul 8, 2010
Allstate Insurance is running a campaign in which the threats of trees falling on cars, teens nicking car bumpers, and pets trashing upholstery are portrayed by a character named "Mayhem." I think it's scary good advertising.
The actor, Dean Winters, is wonderfully smarmy. He was hilariously memorable as Tina Fey's self-adoring idiot ex-boyfriend on "30 Rock," and in these spots he cheerfully promises mayhem on dark roads and in crowded parking lots. He's perfect because he's sinister in the same way that stripes threaten to clash with plaid. I get the point but I'm not scared.
Which is why the critics' complaints that the spots resort to fear mongering are plain wrong. Mayhem's mischief is an expression of reality; fate (or chance) is capricious, and that's why there's such a thing as insurance in the first place. So these ads manage to tell the truth, which is 1) an immense accomplishment for the category, and 2) directionally illustrative of what other advertisers should do.
Jun 21, 2010
The executives at Allstate, known, after their familiar slogan, as “the ‘good hands’ people,” are adding a bad cop to their car advertising good cop. The actor Dean Winters, who plays dark characters in series like “Oz,” “Rescue Me” and “30 Rock,” will appear in an Allstate campaign as Mayhem, personifying the pitfalls, like collisions and storm damage, that can befall drivers. Teaser commercials that began on Friday are intended to pique curiosity for the campaign, which is likely to start in early July.
Claire Huang
May 25, 2010
By all official indications, the Great Recession has very likely ended. But as marketers, we know better than to interpret this to mean we can pick up right where we left off prior to the steep economic slide. Many consumers have readjusted their budgets and some continue to cope with concerns about the security of their jobs. Even those who have not been directly touched are still anxious about the future. Things that once mattered to our customers no longer seem so important to them. That's why we have to reconnect with them in a way that reflects their new reality.
Stuart Elliot
Mar 25, 2010
Executives at Allstate, known, after their famous slogan, as “the ‘good hands’ people,” are looking for a few good advertising ideas — and are making that clear in attention-getting fashion.
Three top managers of the Allstate Corporation came to New York from the company’s Northbrook, Ill., headquarters to make a presentation to senior sales executives from dozens of major media companies. They were joined by a surprise guest: Dennis Haysbert, the actor and Allstate spokesman.
The message, delivered by the Allstate leaders on Wednesday under the title “The New State of Allstate,” was this: Help us advertise more effectively by developing, for all types of media, better ways to tell consumers that Allstate sells protection, not just insurance.
Feb 22, 2010
Almost 75 years ago, the fashion editor Diana Vreeland began captivating, puzzling and amusing a Depression-weary nation with a column in Harper’s Bazaar magazine called “Why Don’t You ... ” She offered suggestions that were breezy — “Why don’t you tie black tulle bows on your wrists?” — or profligate — “Why don’t you turn your old ermine coat into a bathrobe?”
Now, during times deemed almost as hard as those, Saks Fifth Avenue is introducing a campaign inspired by Ms. Vreeland’s maxims, although more grounded in the practical. The campaign, which carries the theme “Think about ... ,” includes print and online advertisements, catalogs, signs in stores, e-mail marketing, events, direct mail and social media like Facebook.
Judann Pollack
Feb 1, 2010
Though there's still widespread disagreement of just when the industry will put the recession firmly behind it, one thing's clear: Whenever it happens, marketers had better be ready. Forward thinkers such as Allstate, Walmart, New Balance, Macy's, Procter & Gamble, McDonald's and Bank of America are already paving the way to recovery by spending on marketing and product innovation, cementing relationships with new consumers and rewarding loyalists who stuck by their brands during the bad times. They are also creating products and messaging that bridge from recession to recovery.
Nov 6, 2009
The Allstate Foundation is teaming up with Scientific Social Solutions to launch "Crash! The Science of Collisions" program in New York State. The educational program teaches driver safety to high-school students using physics, physical science, biology, and math to reconstruct actual motor vehicle accidents.
Stuart Elliott
May 29, 2009
Advertising almost always wants to be upbeat, the better to jolly consumers into, well, consuming. So it is startling to see a spate of campaigns invoking some of the most downbeat times America has ever endured: the desperate decade that began when the stock market crashed in 1929 and continued through the Great Depression.
Davis Thinking
