LORAS COLLEGE

Allstate Mayhem Campaign

Tara Blake, Brody Hooker, Rachel Moser, Dan Vatch

Fall 2015
 Imagine if any and all the bad things that could happen to a person were personified by a

sly, dangerous man. That man is Mayhem and hes the backbone of one of the most iconic

advertisements of the insurance industry, coming in third place just after Progressives Flo and

Geicos Gecko (Pollack, 2011). He represents every possible material fear that could face

someone with a car or a house. Allstates famous Mayhem ad campaign utilizes different

persuasion tactics successfully. Ethos, logos, folk theory, narrative evidence, Yale and Rational-

Functional approaches, as well as other persuasion tactics will be discussed and analyzed. These

persuasion methods help make the Mayhem campaign successful. The advertisements present

a worldview of chaos versus order, which deserves praise for its effectiveness, but is shaky as an

implication.

According to the company website, Allstate Insurance first offered insurance services

after Sears saw insurance as a way to broaden its customer base (Allstate, 2015). It financed its

first insurance company on April 17 , 1931. One month later, a tool and die maker from Aurora,
th

Illinois became the first policyholder for his 1930 Studebaker. In 1934, the company opened its

first sales location in a Chicago Sears store, but didnt hire any full-time claim adjustors until

1937. As time goes on, Allstate.com said it started to become a trend setting in the industry. In

1939, the website shared that their company started to change the insurance industry by offering

auto rates based on age, mileage, and use of car. As business was growing, more insurance

agents were joining the Allstate team. Women were even trained to sell as men left for the

military. By the end of the 1940s, Allstate had over 708,763 policyholders and more than 2800

employees. During the 1950s, the famous, Youre in Good Hands with Allstate became their

slogan, and it remains reassuring to their policyholders to this day. The decade brought

partnerships with nonprofit organizations and high school driver's education programs. The
60s brought even more change, according to the company website. Allstate started offering

loans, refinancing opportunities and mutual funds. The website goes on to share that a research

and planning center was created to help figure out the markets and customer expectations which

helps Allstate continue to grow year after year. In 1995, Sears sold its shares of Allstate to

shareholders, making Allstate a publicly traded company. In 2000, customers could purchase

insurance on the internet, along with over the phone or in person. During this decade, Allstate

Life becomes Allstate Financial to depict all types of services it provide. Allstate continues to

improve and top charts as the time moves forward (2015).

The past progress has paved the road for Allstate. Leo Burnett, an advertising agency,

helped Allstate create a character to reach out to its target audience. This character was named

Mayhem and his job was to create just that: mayhem or chaos in everyones everyday lives. This

particular campaign has earned Allstate eighty different industry awards (Johnson, 2011).

Different scenarios have been added to the campaign since 2011 such as one about dryer lint,

large espressos, texting teenage girls, and blind spots (Nudd, 2013).

The first advertisement features Dean Winters standing over a dyer while pulling an

enormous amount of lint out of the filter. Winters, also known as the Mayhem man, has pieces

of lint on his black business suit, and he is clearly struggling to remove the massive pieces of lint

from the filter. In the advertisement he says, I'm dryer lint. I might smell like spring breeze, but

I will burn your house down. Find out what else I am at Allstates Mayhem. Winters attempts

to display that if excess lint is left in the filter, the highly flammable substance may easily catch

fire if it reaches the temperature of combustion. In conclusion, he mentions that Mayhem is

everywhere, and to ensure that all the viewers have good coverage and protection, such as

Allstate.
 The second advertisement is an example of an unfortunately sad and realistic scenario.

Similar to the campaigns other advertisements, Dean Winters is featured. He is driving a sleek

black sedan in a downtown area of a big city. He narrates the beginning by saying, Im a filthy

rich executive. I hear the market is down a million points. Out of surprise, he simply spills,

his coffee on his lap, and is forced to slam on the break. He mentions that whoever hit him may

not be able to cover the costs of his $90,000 car. Then he advisers the viewers to get Allstate in

order to be better protected from Mayhem, like himself. This advertisement carries the valuable

message that insurance may be the only thing preventing one from financial catastrophe when

dealing with a powerful, wealthy person.

The next spot opens with a pink Dodge Durango driving through a movie theatre parking

lot. Mayhem is texting while driving and says that he is a teenage girl. He then describes how

his BFF just kissed a boy that Mayhem likes. He then slams his pink Durango into a parked car

completely destroying the parked cars fender. Mayhem then pulls away using the excuse that he

doesnt care about the other car because of the drama that is going on between friends. Mayhem

then says that if you have another insurance company other than Allstate, you could be stuck

paying the cost of the repair. The advertisement ends with a spokesperson asking their trademark

question Are you in good hands?

The last advertisement shows a middle-aged woman driving in her jeep with Mayhem on

the outside of the car. He says that he is the blind spot and his job is to hide big things. He

then leans into the mirror to tell the woman that it is ok to change lanes when there is a big

pickup truck right in her blind spot. She hits the truck while changing lanes and spins out on the

highway. Mayhem then says that with cut-rate insurance you could be paying the cost of the

accident yourself. He then hops down from that car and puts himself on another cars blind spot.
The advertisement ends with their spokesperson asking their trademark question Are you in

good hands? just as the other advertisements asked.

Looking at what make the advertisements persuasive and memorable to its viewers, ethos

builds credibility for each of the spots. As described by Frymier and Nadler, ethos is defined as

the nature of the credibility of the source (2013). Mayhem builds the credibility by the language

he speaks. He speaks on a level that is easily understood by the general public and does not use

many large words to confused the viewer. The language is important to build credibility because

if the viewers do not understand what is being said, then the whole advertisement is worthless.

The viewer, who ultimately is the consumer, will not be able to listen and understand why

Allstate is a better company to buy insurance policies with.

Logos, which is the nature of the argument and structure of the message (Frymier &

Nadler, 2013), is clear in the advertisements. All the advertisements have the same structure

within them. Each start off saying what scenario Mayhem has created within the advertisement

and the negative effects of that certain scenario. For example, in the dryer link commercial, Im

dryer lint. I smell like a spring breeze, but Ill burn your house down. The argument is

described, then the negative effect of burning ones house down is addressed with the solution of

getting Allstate at the end. The conversational tone that Mayhem creates helps lead the viewer

through the advertisement to understand the problem and lead to the solution.

Folk Theory is based around experience and knowledge through personal development

(Frymier & Nadler, 2013). Allstate uses folk theory to their advantage because of the different

scenarios in which Mayhem is present. He is inserted into everyday situations which people

experience but may not necessarily give that much thought. Insurance is not the first thing on

everyones mind because people normally cannot foresee damages happening. However, when
Mayhem is present, it triggers a thought in the viewers mind that something in the advertisement

can actually happen to them in real life. Allstate creates a sense of worry by depicting peoples

everyday experiences that can turn into disaster in a second.

Pathos, otherwise known as the emotional appeals of the message (Frymier & Nadler,

2013), is present in this campaign through the character, Mayhem. Particularly in the Pink SUV

Teenager Driver advertisement, he does a great job explaining the emotions. My bff Becky

texts me saying she just kissed Johnny. Well, thats a problem, because I like Johnny. Instantly

there is hostility in the tone of his voice which sets the mood for the whole advertisement.

Now, Im emotionally compromising...OMG. Beckys not even hot! Swerving over the

parking lot and hitting a car reinforces the unstable emotional state Mayhem is in. The

advertisement does a good job persuading the audience to get better insurance with Allstate with

the emotions incorporated with the teenage girl.

Among the most powerful appeals are emotionally driven. The Mayhem advertisements

use humor as well as fear. According to Frymier and Nadler, an emotional appeal relies on

emotion to be persuasive (2013). Humor is present, but it is not over bearing. We laugh at

mayhems personification as a man, at the irony involved in such gruesome accidents. But

humor is present when the type of mayhem is characterized as something clearly different from

the actor. When he refers to himself as a teenage girl upset about a boy she likes kissing her

friend. It is humorous because he is clearly not a teenage girl. Fear tends to be much more

powerful, and is used more effectively but these advertisements than humor is. A moderate fear

appeal, rather than using too much or too little, is usually most effective (Frymier & Nadler,

2013). The fears presented in the advertisements are all real things that could happen to anybody.

Fires from dryer lint, car accidents, etc. These things can and do happen to people every day, so
that in some ways intensifies the fear than would be present if it talked about freak occurrences.

But the damage from such events can be minimized with the right car insurance, the ads reassure

us. That is what makes fear most effective, when a clear way to mitigate that fear and risks

involved, is presented.

A peripheral cue is one that involves little elaboration, or thinking. According to Frymier

and Nadler, peripheral cues help a viewer decide quickly on a message without putting much

thought into it (2013). A drawback of this, however, is that the impressions they leave last a

short period of time. One of the peripheral cues related to persuasion is that physical

attractiveness. Peripheral cues are those that the viewer does not think rationally about and are

on a short term basis. The actor who portrays Mayhem in the advertisements is conventionally

handsome, wearing a suit and having a bit of stubble. His name, Mayhem, adds danger, and

even though the viewer can rationally see that Mayhem is to be avoided, there is that element of

danger that is attractive or arousing. Another peripheral cue is that of rewards and punishments.

The advertisements enforces a punishment of mayhem, or any misfortune happening without

any way to pay for it, and they implicitly offer the reward of peace of mind if viewers do

purchase Allstate Insurance.

The Yale approach is a classic theory of persuasion that is displayed in the Allstate

commercials. The Yale approach theorized that persuasion is made up of four components:

attention, comprehension, acceptance, and retention (Frymier & Nadler, 2013). The Allstate

commercials in the Mayhem campaign begin with a usual scenario that almost anyone can relate

to. These situations such as removing dryer lint, spilling espresso, and driving with a blind spot.

Additionally, because of the common nature of these occurrences, it is easy for the audience to

understand the likelihood of it happening again. Towards the middle of each advertisement,
Dean Winters narrates how this can happen to anyone, which forces the audience to answer the

question, Are you in good hands? The Yale approach is present as the audience is forced not

only comprehend and understand the message but to also accept and retain when thinking about

their current insurance.

The rational-functional approach appeals to people based on a practical need for a

product or service. According to Woodward and Denton, Rational motives include comfort,

convenience, or a health benefit, as well as quality, price, performance, or dependability (2009).

Car insurance is a practical need that protects cars, homes, people, in the event of an emergency

and serves as a safety net. In many cases it is even a legal requirement. So the need for

insurance is deeply held norm in modern society that is becoming more and more pervasive. It is

service that fairly new, but has recently become a necessity for modern life.

Additionally, propaganda techniques are present throughout the Allstate advertisements.

These tactics share a common goal of misleading the audiences attention to something other

than the central issue (Frymier & Nadler, 2013). Although many propaganda tactics are visible

in Allstates Mayhem advertisements, three are easily depicted; this or nothing, plain folk, and

name-calling. First, this or nothing is visible as a technique. It calls for the audience to take

immediate action before it is too late. For example, in one advertisement Dean Winters portrays

himself as dryer lint, and suggests to the audience to switch to Allstate before he burns your

house down. Additionally, plain folk is a technique used as the commercials are targeted towards

the average home and car owner. The targeted audience is unspecific, as it calls for immediate

action from those with insurance. Lastly, name calling is present as Dean Winters suggests to

drop, cut rate insurance. The phrase offers a negative label without justification or proof in the

advertisement (Frymier & Nadler, 2013).

 This advertising campaign promises peace of mind as a consequence of purchasing its

insurance which helps the overall campaign succeed. The advertisements make no mention of

price or the benefit of Allstate Insurance compared to other insurance companies, or specifically

why its insurance is better. This is refreshing for the viewer because they are not bombarded

with information in a short time period. The campaign effectively presents a thin line between

chaos and order with different emotional appeals such as fear and humor. The world is a

frightening place, the advertisements imply, and the only thing that could protect the viewer is

Allstate Insurance. Mayhem, as an overarching concept with specific dangers, is to be avoided

by the everyday person. He is constantly at the back door and Allstate provides the most

complete answer to him based on the persuasion tactics included in the advertisements. Overall,

the campaign is very successful which can be enforced with the industry awards that it has

received. It creates a memorable personality to attach to tragedy that retains an element of the

humorous.

Since 1931, Allstate insurance has been making its impact on both the insurance industry

and the world of advertising. Allstate set the standard by offering auto rates based on age,

mileage and use of car, which has allowed the company to dominate the market. Through use of

many persuasion techniques, the advertisements featured in Allstates Mayhem campaign are

some of the most popular and easily recognizable insurance advertisements in history. The use

of ethos, logos, folk theory and narrative evidence as well as the Yale and rational-functional

approach contribute to a successful and memorable advertising campaign. The persuasive nature

of this campaign illustrates to its audience that Allstate can and will protect them in this chaotic

and catastrophic world. Through the proper use of persuasion, all are aware that Youre in

Good Hands with Allstate.

 Bibliography

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Frymier, Ann Bainbridge., and Marjorie Keeshan Nadler. "Chapter 4." Persuasion: Integrating
Theory, Research, and Practice. Dubuque, IA: Kendall Hunt Pub., 2013. 67. Print.

Johnson, Steve. (2011, June 01). Inside look at new Allstate Mayhem man. Chicago Tribune.
Retrieved December 9, 2015, from http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-06-
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Nudd, T. (2013, January 22). The Spot: 'Mayhem' Forever. Retrieved December 9, 2015, from
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