New Allstate Insurance Commercial (Mayhem is Coming!)

I saw this commercial yesterday. The commercial seems innocent enough, except for the text that occasionally popped up on the screen, which read "Mayhem is Coming"

Here is the commercial:



Mayhem, as defined by Webster's Dictionary:

1 a : willful and permanent deprivation of a bodily member resulting in the impairment of a person's fighting ability b : willful and permanent crippling, mutilation, or disfigurement of any part of the body
2 : needless or willful damage or violence

So, is this corporate fear mongering? OR.....you decide.

ETA: I placed this under Predictions & Prophecies, as that is exactly what Allstate seems to be making with that statement.

[edit on 21-6-2010 by Aggie Man]

That is creepy. Bad choice of words or a subtle hint of what is coming?

Yeah, saw that commercial yesterday. I thought it rather creepy. But, if mayhem occurs, I doubt the insurance company will be able to make good on claims anyhow.

Originally posted by kyred
... if mayhem occurs, I doubt the insurance company will be able to make good on claims anyhow.

My thoughts exactly! I guess they are looking for one last "premium payment" before they make their "get away".

I saw this commercial the other day and certainly questioned their wording. I'm not really sure what to make of it.

Star and flag from me.

This reminds me a lot like Fight Club. The "I am" statements, parking garage, THE MUSIC for chrissakes, the way he takes pleasure from his pain at the end, MAYHEM is part of the tagline for both (Mischief, Mayhem, Soap)...

EDIT: Also forgot talking directly to the camera.

[edit on 21-6-2010 by Scopeless]

Allstate has some messed up ads. That is a really poor commercial imo. I don't see how that would draw customers in.

I saw that ad this weekend as well. Pretty spooky stuff. Whether it pertains to "insider" info or not, I think it's a little tasteless. But, evidently Allstate wants to protray something a little different - using the "good cop," "bad cop" scenario for selling insurance. Check it out.

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.
In a new advertising campaign from Allstate, the actor Dean Winters portrays a character named Mayhem.
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.

www.nytimes.com...

peace

Originally posted by Gutterpus
In a new advertising campaign from Allstate, the actor Dean Winters portrays a character named Mayhem.

If these creepy ads catch on, who want to bet we'll start seeing a bunch of babies being named Mayhem next? Almost has a nice ring to it...

I think they watched that Carrie Underwood video too many times! "I dug my key into the side of his pretty little souped up four-wheel drive!"

reply to post by ghaleon12


I really like that commercial! It does draw me in! I really do think Mayhem is coming! It is thought-provoking, but a little creepy!

To me all it means is that no matter what, crap is gonna happen to people so might as well be protected. Mayhem is strictly a buzzword to get your attention...mission accomplished it would seem

Insurance schemes have always been a form of gambling. When purchasing insurance you are making a bet. If it is life insurance you are betting you will die before the insurance company predicts you will. Consider the utter ridiculousness of that bet.

This commercial only underscores the gamble and is asking you to bet on mayhem happening, but make no mistakes about it, if insurance companies believed mayhem was about to happen, they wouldn't take that bet.

[edit on 21-6-2010 by Jean Paul Zodeaux]

Hey Aggie Man,
Whatsha think? Could this character who spouts "Mayhem is coming", really be the dude himself? My money on the real Mayhem Man is the old Nosty villian, Perse. Kinda, Sorta, Bruce Almighty's evel (that's right, EVEL) twin brother, Perce. Now this should be one really bad dude. Since the all knowing interpreter of Nostradamus, John Hogue, claims Perse will launch a series of attacks at the Big Apple, and if he is really a fraternal, and fratricidal, twin brother of Bruce A. , then he's already got Nosty's real, "First Monarch of the Universe", Almighty, to give what for, to the U.S. Gov't, via a Pearl Harbor class wake up call, back in 2001. So what will be the next escalation, beyond 9-11?
So if I'm right, our Mayhem Man's given name is Perse, (Bruce-Perce). But this begs the question, is this Perse really God's fair haired boy, or FHB?? In Nosty's French, Perce is pronounced Persay, and it means "to pierce". And maybe more to the point, could he be just as well intentioned as Bruce, but just seeming to keep messing things up like the proverbial bull in a celestial china shop? How would poor old Jim Carrey's, Bruce's character's twin brother, come off to you? And does this Mayhem is coming, commercial pluck your strings too?

You guys are tards. "Mayhem" represents the everyday dangers on the road, i.e. a deer jumping out, or a teenage driver distracted by a cellphone, a tree branch falling, etc... The snickering at the end is like a "haha, gotcha sucker." Its nothing prophetic and its not a prediction... its just a damn ad.

reply to post by Aggie Man


Can I take this to be a direct threat from Allstate? And by law a direct threat qualifies as assault. So, I think I should be able to sue Allstate for assault.

I also saw this ad as an attempt to capitalize on the imagery/ideas/attitude of the book and film "Fight Club" (especially the film). I think it's merely an attempt by the insurance company to create a hip, subversive ad.

To this, I think it somewhat fails, considering the movie "Fight Club" is about 11 years old now, but then again the insurance industry (which I worked in for a while), is not exactly a business known for its hipness or being "of the moment." (Interestingly, I also worked in film before insurance and was pretty close to some people very involved in Fight Club at the time that it was released...when it was hip and of the moment.)

Fight Club is a great movie, and still very subversive, but the fact that it's taken 11 years for the insurance industry to "jump on bandwagon" (or whatever) says one of two things to me:

1) it's taken 11 years for the ideas/attitudes in that movie to become ingrained and accepted in our culture enough that even a terminally un-hip company like Allstate can use it as a cultural touchstone for their ad campaign.

or

2) Allstate is 11 years behind the curve on what is actually hip and new.

I think the answer is probably a bit of both 1 and 2 in this case.

[edit on 8/28/2010 by LifeInDeath]

reply to post by Aggie Man


I love these commercials, marketing genius is what it is. I really like the one where he is all 'omg' , mocking a teen girl on her phone as she talks and drives oblivious to hitting cars, ect. So accurate of teenagers these days.

I don't think there is anymore to it than selling insurance.

reply to post by space cadet

I don't think there is anymore to it than selling insurance.

Selling insurance with fear in order to get a very primitive response. In the form of impulse buys.

If I see "Mayhem" in the street I'm going to go punch him in the face and tell him that "I" just happened!