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Allstate Controversy

Allstate Insurance has been running the Mayhem campaign for over three years now and has been able to avoid any major controversy. However, one of their very first ads did strike up a bit of concern over the abuse of overused stereotypes. The ad featured Mayhem portraying a female teenage driver talking on the phone, chatty as ever, and then crashing her car into other vehicles in the parking lot. Feminist were not at all pleased with the use of what they saw as an insulting and overworked stereotype. An article from Jezebel discussed the issue of using stereotypes in ads, particularly in this Allstate commercial. The article says that this type of stereotyping is generally seen as what they refer to as a ‘safety school.’ Writer Joe Dellosa continues on to say, “…a company as benign as Allstate, selling a product as insipid as car insurance, feels comfortable taking cheap shots at young women in a national ad campaign suggests a normalization of sexism that is noteworthy.” The issue doesn’t lie in whether or not the stereotypes are true, but that they are used so comfortably. An article from Adweek looks at the way stereotypes have been used over and over again in ads all through the years, starting with the idea of the suburban stay at home mom. The president and global managing director at Starcom Media Vest Group, Sarah Kramer is quoted in the article saying, “Too often, marketers will generalize when they could have been more personal, more engaging.” This is pretty much the point the Dellosa article is making. Sure the Mayhem commercial is funny and meant to be harmless but how long can these stereotypes be played upon before they become offensive and lose their affect completely, and should consumers stand by and let them be used? An Allstate spokesperson, Raleigh Floyd, responded to the controversy of the ad saying, “I know that, for the majority for the campaign as a whole, the goal was to portray scenarios that the viewing public would recognize… And to some extent that would rely on some stereotypes, perhaps, or else how else do they recognize them?"  Of course it makes sense to show people things they can relate to as a way of selling a product, but isn’t there a way to make it more genuine?

     Allstate never really responded to the complaints filed by consumers other than to justify their use of the stereotype as a way to sell their product. The commercial continued to run and people continued to laugh just the same. Even if the company didn’t take people’s distain towards the ad too seriously, they did acknowledge the complaints. Hopefully in the future, we will see less of a dependence on stereotypes in advertising as a whole. It seems unavoidable seeing as people can only respond positively to something for so long before it gets old and worn out. Personally, I see that as being the only way to really do away with the use of type-casting and stereotyping in all branches of consumerism.

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Allstate Social Media

The Allstate Insurance social media networks are very centered on interacting with their followers. For the past few weeks I have followed them on both Facebook and Twitter. The first thing I noticed is that their Twitter and Facebook accounts both seem to share pretty much the same things at the same time. Their Facebook has about 360 thousand followers. People seem to leave comments pretty frequently in response to what has been posted. There are individuals who choose to interact with the company by posting on their wall. Usually they seem to be complaining. When they do though they are responded to promptly and are offered help for whatever their problem is. However, people do seem to react positively to the postings on the account and find it to be useful. Most of the posts are tips on ways to be safe in your home or how to handle things like having your call stolen. They don’t say much about any of their campaigns. It seems Facebook is strictly a means of interacting with their clients rather than another advertising method.

Allstate’s Twitter account is a little bit different. They do share many of the informative posts that they do on their Facebook, but they also do some stuff a bit differently. The Twitter has 39 thousand followers. It doesn’t seem like there is much interaction as far as ‘favoriting’ or ‘retweeting’ their tweets. They do occasionally host a Q&A with followers and answer a variety of questions. Similar to their Facebook, there isn’t much advertising on their Twitter. They don’t mention any of their campaigns which was a little disappointing to me. I’m not sure how useful either of these accounts will be for my report seeing as they do not mention the Mayhem campaign which was what I was planning to study. I think that one reason they are not as concerned with advertising as much on these accounts is likely because they do so much outside of these sites on other media platforms. These sites are meant to interact with their public. They may occasionally suggest using Allstate for insurance over another brand but it will have to do with whatever tip they are giving rather than just advertising their policies. 

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Allstate Articles

When looking at the various ad campaigns Allstate has done through the ages, the one that stood out most to me is the current Mayhem campaign. Mayhem is very different from anything the company has done before and has quickly taken all forms of media by storm. One of the articles I have found that I believe will be useful in discussing the campaign and its relevance is from the CBS Altitude Group.  It is a special segment that focuses on marketing techniques. The article discusses the way that Mayhem has quickly become on the most popular television ads and the ways the campaign quickly spread to other media platforms. The article also covers an interview with Dean Winters, the actor who plays Mayhem, and Lisa Cochrane the SVP of marketing for Allstate. Together they explain with the goals of the campaign were at its start in June of 2010. This will be useful for my paper as it answers several questions, such as why the ad is so popular and the way it has grown through the years.

The second article I am looking to use in my analysis is from the Chicago Business Journal.  This article is relevant because it discusses a couple of drawbacks of the Mayhem campaign and the new “Good Life” campaign that Allstate is launching to balance out the messages the brand is working to send. The Mayhem campaigns can be seen as a way of scaring people into buying insurance by showing consumers all the bad things that can happen in life; even if they are doing so in a ridiculous way. The “Good Life” campaign will provide a second message to go along with the Mayhem campaign illustrating that insurance is important in both the good and bad times and will position Allstate as a reliable, stable brand. I think that this is an interesting article because of the way they are using both campaigns together. They won’t be taking Mayhem out of the game but rather giving him a partner that will work positively for Allstate and strengthen the brand further by covering a larger group of people.