Introduction:

            Mayhem is everywhere.  The insurance company Allstate promotes this saying through its many Mayhem campaign commercials. In the Mayhem campaign they came up with the character the Mayhem man, played by Dean Winters. The Mayhem man acts as the mayhem in different situations. The Mayhem man acts as inanimate objects such as a satellite dish on a house as well as animate objects like a raccoon. Through the humor and real-life situations that the Mayhem man presents, it promotes the insurance company. The Mayhem man ads are effective because they show people that you need insurance for real-life mayhem that can occur at any time.  

The Author:

            Initially, Allstate was founded as part of the company Sears and Roebuck & Co. to sell auto insurance (History). However sixty-four years later in 1995, it became an independent company (History). Since they first begun, Allstate has always looked out for their clients and society as a whole. When they first became a company, they were one of the first companies to give safe drivers better rates on insurance (History). Twenty years later they created the drive-in claim office (History). They also helped with the general safety of all Americans by helping to convince the government to make sure that every American had to wear their seat belt in a automobile (History). Allstate also helped promote air bags and how much safer it is for the passengers in a automobile to have them (History). Through all these campaigns and their ethical principles they stand behind and support, Allstate proves to be an upstanding company.

            Throughout the years they have had many ad campaigns. However, they have only had three main characters. Allstate has always had a main character who showed up in every one of their ads. The first consistent Allstate character who showed up in every one of their ads was played by Ed Reimers (Ed). The next character, or face of Allstate, was Dennis Haysbert (Ed). The next character, the Mayhem man, was played by Dean Winters (Ed). Although Dennis's voice is still heard at the end of a Mayhem campaign commercial, Dean Winters became another face of Allstate.     

            The Mayhem ads were part of a new campaign for Allstate. The creator behind these hilarious commercials was Lisa Cochrane (Blog). The Mayhem man, played by Dean Winters, was created by the advertising agency Leo Burnett and the insurance company Northbrook (Blog). The Mayhem man is the object, animal, or person that causes the mayhem of the situation. He promotes the company by stating that other insurances do not cover this type of mayhem. The commercial was first launched in June of 2010 to intrigue a younger clientele (Blog).

The Audience:

            The intended audience is primarily young and middle-aged adults. Children, who often find the commercials funny or humorous, are not the intended audience because they cannot buy insurance. At the time Allstate was competing with other insurance companies that were focusing their commercials on the price to get the younger generations' attention. Therefore, they came up with the dangerous, active, amusing character the Mayhem man. This Mayhem campaign came out in June of 2010 to attract a younger clientele that are entertained by dark humor and action. During 2010 television shows were, and most still are, full of action. The television shows like Hawaii Five-O, Covert Affairs, and Breaking Bad (Most). Therefore this type of commercial would appeal to the audiences that generally watch television, especially in the evening. This type of commercial would have never been used or produced in the 1950's or 1960's because it would be too violent and disturbing for television during that time period. It was too disturbing for that time period because of the impact it has on the audience. The text impact the audience because they see that if that situation happened to them that there was a possibility that they would not be protected. This instills fear into the audience because it is scary to think that one could be out thousands of dollars even if one has insurance and never even had an accident. This impacts the way they act because some of the audience might go through and re-look at their own insurance policy to see how much protection they really have. It might also impacted they way they act by switching insurance companies to get a greater amount of protection. The Mayhem man commercials were effective because they had so many different types of appeals such as: humor, emotional appeals, name-calling, and rational appeals.

The Text:

            The Mayhem man's attire is always consistent no matter what role he may be playing. He dresses in a suit that is beat up and rough. The Mayhem man generally has bruises, black eyes, and stitches or band-aids above his left eye. He generally looks like he has not shaved in a few days. This gives him more of a rough, suave look that emphasis his character as the mayhem in the situation.      

             The writing style of the scripts are very plain and straight forward. The advertisements that display the Mayhem man are mainly in television commercials. They are generally ran at any time of day on the television because they are mainly aimed at teenagers and adults. It is only the Mayhem man speaking in the commercial with some background noise like crashes and car horns. The Mayhem Man looks directly at the camera and plainly states the scene. 

             In the Allstate commercial where the Mayhem man imitates a raccoon, he looks directly into the camera and states what he does as a raccoon. This plainly stated scene that the Mayhem man tells the audience cuts to the chase. It adds the right amount of dark humor through his statement, "I'm a raccoon. And this time in your attack has been the best time of my raccoon life." (Raccoon). It shows humor because he is pretending to be a raccoon and emphasizes he is a raccoon by his extra word "raccoon" before the word "life" in his line. It also provides humor through his actions in the advertisement. The Mayhem man jumps around in the insulation and even tears it apart with his teeth. This is humorous because he is a person doing this and no normal person would ever play in insulation of the attic. Once he walks out of the attic in the end one can see that it is very bright outside and the house that he just destroyed is in a very nice subdivision that is perfect.

 

               In the advertisement where the Mayhem man, played by Dean Winters, portrays a satellite dish it is very bright and cheery outside. However Dean Winters, the Mayhem man, does not fit into this scene very well because of his attire. His dingy, beat up suit does not fit into the sunny beautiful day, but neither does mayhem in one's day. This is the general look of a Mayhem man commercial. The background will always be sunny, in a fancy car, in a fancy house, and everything is perfect besides the dingy, disaster-creating Mayhem man.  The Mayhem man is a consistent character in these advertisements. In contrast the Mayhem man is always wearing the same beat up suit and has bruises or cuts on his face no matter what role he is playing. This added consistency to his character and an abstract, tactile look on mayhem itself. The Mayhem man clearly states "I'm a satellite dish" (Satellite), in one commercial. This shows the Mayhem man taking the role as the mayhem in the situation. By taking on the role as the satellite dish it shows that mayhem is something no one can see because the other characters in the commercials seem to think he really is a satellite dish. No one saw the mayhem in the satellite dish, but through the eyes of Allstate we could see the mayhem in the scene. The major theme of these commercials is that Mayhem is everywhere and with Allstate people are better protected against Mayhem.

                Allstate gets this message across through different types of advertisement appeals such as humor, emotional appeal, name-calling, and rational appeal. The ad uses name-calling because at the end of the advertisement with the teenage girl when the Mayhem man states, "And if you got cut-rate car insurance you may have to pay for this yourself," (Dean Winters). Through the cogitation of "cut-rate" it implies that it is a cheap insurance company that does not cover everything like Allstate does. This also shows rational appeal because it is rational that people would want to be covered for something like hit-and-run drivers since they are paying for insurance. The teenage girl advertisement also shows emotional appeal because it can make some people feel fearful that this situation could happen to them and they would not be protected under their current insurance company. The Mayhem man portraying a teenage girl also shows humor because he is a grown man that is rough and tough wearing pink sunglasses and saying "Omg," (Dean Winters). Through the acronym "Omg," it adds humor because grown men do not say these types of acronyms because grown men do not say these types of acronyms because it is considered to be girly. All of these types of appeals make the advertisement effective because people are now wondering about how much protection they really have under their current insurance company and will probably be willing to switch if they are not already covered for such mayhem like the Mayhem man portrays.

Conclusion:

               Allstate is selling protection, not just insurance like other companies in this field. They are selling protection against the mayhem that surrounds everyone, everyday.  The Mayhem man instills mayhem and humor throughout the whole country all the while supporting Allstate and their protection against mayhem like him. Allstate's campaign with the Mayhem man will defiantly be one of those campaigns that the audience who saw them will remember for years to come due to the dark humor and how different it was from all the other commercials of its time.

Works Cited:

"Allstate Mayhem Commercials: Raccoon." YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 17 Nov. 2014.

"Allstate Mayhem Commercials: Satellite Dish." YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 17 Nov. 2014.

"Allstate Mayhem Commercial - Dean Winters as Teenage Girl in Pink Truck." YouTube.                      YouTube, n.d. Web. 17 Nov. 2014.
 "Blog." Allstate’s Mayhem. A Deeper Look. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Nov. 2014.

"Ed, Dennis and Mayhem, Allstate's Super Ad-Men." HubPages. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Nov. 2014.

"History and Timeline." Allstate Digital Newsroom. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Nov. 2014.

"Most Popular Action TV Series." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 17 Nov. 2014.