Fear and Loathing at Allstate: New TV Ads Reflect "Mayhem" on Its Income Statement
Allstate (ALL) has mostly ditched the friendly face of actor Dennis Haysbert from its "in good hands" ads in favor of a character called "Mayhem" who shows up in your life at random -- and trashes it. The new commercials are dark and creepy and have a black sense of humor. The company wants to make sure its audience is nice and scared. But if you look at Allstate's recent financials it turns out that the source of the fear may be the company itself.
The Mayhem ads, by contrast, are like a horror movie. "I'm a random windstorm," Mayhem cackles, standing on a high tree-branch over a parked car. "Shakey! Shakey!" He bounces on the limb, which comes crashing down and totals the vehicle. The tagline: "Mayhem is coming."
An even creepier one has Mayhem standing at the side of a country road in the night. "I'm a wild deer," he says, and walks out in front of an oncoming car. The sedan runs him down, batting his body into the air. Lying on the tarmac, Mayhem chuckles to himself. (He also shows up as a driving-while-texting teen girl and a chew-the-car-up puppy.)
Creatively, it's great stuff. The forbidding jazz score is perfect. You can easily see "Mayhem" showing up as a Saturday Night Live skit or a series of YouTube spoofs. Kudos to ad agency Leo Burnett.
Strategically, however, AllState is channeling Broadview Security's "you might be raped!" ads. Why the freakout? Perhaps it's because Allstate's revenues sank 1.7 percent in Q1 2010 after healthy growth in 2009. The company is scared for its sales, and now it wants you to be scared too, dear premium payer.
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