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ICYMI: Allstate’s Mayhem is a slam dunk in March Madness
Ask and ye shall receive. Although I know you all have already seen it on YouTube, I’m adding the Mayhem “Slam Dunk” and “Cleaning Lady” spots.
But this is the last Mayhem post. I swear. Again.
Hardly their best effort. But this one’s not bad …
At the time of this writing each clip had about 90,000 views. I have no idea what was happening on the Facebook page because I’m not on Facebook right now.
FLASHBACK: MUCHO MAYHEM FUN CIRCA 2011-2012
UPDATE 5-31-2012: Allstate is updating its YouTube channel, and some videos are working and some are not. I’m trying to update the links as soon as Allstate reposts them. Thank you for your patience.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This post reflects my interest as a marketing student in advertising and social media marketing. The opinions expressed here are mine and in no way reflect the opinions of my employers.
We all saw this coming, didn’t we? New Mayhem for March Madness. I think the NCAA fans are too preoccupied by the season: At the time of this writing, this clip, posted on YouTube on March 16, had only 1,827 views. At 8:11 p.m. March 17, the clip was not yet posted on the Mayhem Facebook page. However, the “Guard Dog” clip, which was posted to YouTube on March 14, the same day it was posted on the Facebook page, has 35,508 views; 5,106 people “like” the video on Facebook, 266 people have commented, and it has been shared 2,232 times.
FROM JULY 2011: A roundup of 2011 Mayhem commercials
REWIND: J’adore, tu adores: Charlize Theron for Dior’s J’adore
ED’S NOTE: This post was originally published December 2011. It reflects my interest as a marketing student in advertising, search-engine optimization, and viral marketing. No agencies or products are endorsed. The opinions expressed here are mine and in no way reflect the opinions of my employers.
In what is a nice break from the nearly insufferable, panic-inducing holiday ads of the season, EDITED 11-30-2012 Prime-time viewers are getting an eyeful of glamour, thanks to Dior’s J’adore ”film” by Jean-Jacques Annaud, that features the always-gorgeous Charlize Theron, and co-stars such greats as Grace Kelly, Marlene Dietrich, and Marilyn Monroe.
The commercial, which was filmed in the Galerie des Glaces at Versailles, isn’t new; it was released in early September. However, it’s getting airtime this holiday shopping season, as it should, because the spot easily and smartly appeals to both sexes: the women who want to be Charlize Theron, and the husbands and boyfriends who want to be with Charlize Theron.
What caught my attention was the music that propelled the viewer through the couture-show setting: 2009′s Heavy Cross by Gossip — with Beth Ditto‘s punk princess vocals and Brace Paine’s hypnotic bass riff — was compelling enough to make me grab my iPhone and Shazam it. (I have since played this song to death.)
At the time of this writing, this clip on YouTube had 1,211,325 views, 4,404 likes, 84 dislikes, and 474 comments.
From the YouTube comments:
I have a theory, each of the girls represent a perfume:
Grace Kelly (Miss Dior Cherie)
Marlene Dietrich (Hypnotic Poison)
Marilyn Monroe (Dior Addict or J’adore)
Charlize Theron (J’adore obviously)<3 Dior!
~ franzchick66,
YouTube member
Nice theory, franzchick66. I can’t afford to smell that good, so I’ll have to take your word.
The subscribers to Dior’s YouTube channel are active and enthusiastic about the “films.” I’ll readily admit that I know nothing about couture, but even so, I still remember Dior’s 2007 smokin’ hot, 30-second “film” that has Charlize striding through a mansion, elegantly disrobing as only she can to Marvin Gaye’s 1978 Funky Space Reincarnation.
And that, kids, is what they call an impression.
About the Dior Channel
(As of Dec. 13, 2011)
- Total Upload Views: 3,535,200
- Joined: Oct. 14, 2005
- Subscribers: 7,288
Nike’s ‘Jogger’ isn’t running alone
EDITOR’S NOTE: This post reflects my interest in advertising and promotions as a marketing student. The opinions expressed here are mine and in no way reflect the opinions of my employers. No agencies or products are endorsed.
USA TODAY‘s marketing reporter Bruce Horovitz looks at Madison Avenue’s use of obese people in advertisements as symbols of change. The story cites Nike’s “Find Your Greatness” ad that features Nathan running on a lonely country road as narrator Tom Hardy quietly assures us that greatness is not reserved for “the chosen few. For prodigies. For superstars.” According to the USA TODAY story, the other brands in following in Nike’s footsteps — so to speak — are Blue Cross Blue Shield and, of course, Subway, which is happy to celebrate Jared‘s 15 years of healthier eating.
From the USA TODAY story:
Why is it now acceptable to show obesity? “More of us are overweight, so it’s a shared problem,” says Valerie Folkes, marketing professor at University of Southern California.
But that’s only a small part of the reason it’s OK show obesity. A quote from Erich Joachimsthaler, a brand consultant, points out that the ads’ appeal is also rooted in a new generation — a generation where fat isn’t different and we’re all famous, even if for a little while.
From the story:
“The new generation doesn’t see (obese people) as different. There is a new, democratic world view: Everyone can be a star.”
With that casual acceptance in mind, we ask what’s the big deal? Well, society and the media tell us being obese is not OK, being overweight is not OK — it’s a constant message no matter how many times celebs tell us they like their weight gains or urge us to love ourselves just the way we are. But if we consider that in the calendar year 2009–2010, 35.7% of U.S. adults were obese, we understand exactly why brands are embracing obese people: They’re consumers, too, with discretionary dollars to spend. This isn’t about everyone loving everyone just the way they are; for better or for worse, featuring fat folks in ads is about sales — plain ol’ dollars and cents.
Quick facts about obesity from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention:
- An adult who has a BMI between 25 and 29.9 is considered overweight.
- An adult who has a BMI of 30 or higher is considered obese.
- Approximately 17% (or 12.5 million) of children and adolescents aged 2—19 years are obese.
- Since 1980, obesity prevalence among children and adolescents has almost tripled.
SOURCES:
http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html
http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/childhood.html
Allstate’s Mayhem: A study in car maintenance
EDITOR’S NOTE: This post reflects my interest as a marketing student in advertising and social media marketing. The opinions expressed here are mine and in no way reflect the opinions of my employers. No agencies or products are endorsed.
You know you need new wiper blades, so why don’t you take 10 minutes to replace them?
It’s an irritating task that we never do when we’re supposed to, and the ad folks for Allstate (Nasdaq: ALL) know this. So in a new 30-second ad, posted on YouTube on Sept. 26, Allstate’s Mayhem is our worn-out wiper blades that leave us defenseless against the torrential downpour we’re guaranteed to encounter just hours after we say to ourselves, “I need new wiper blades.”
Worn-out wiper blades represent a self-imposed risk we take when we procrastinate, a mark of our stupidity — not necessarily Mayhem in its truest form.
But when we look at the Mayhem ads with a more critical eye, we see they’re funny and engaging, but nothing that happens is really devastating. A kitchen fire is kinda funny. A dryer fire? Hilarious. And really, who among us doesn’t love it when a drunk football fan runs in front of our car? No, Mayhem isn’t that ominous, which is why the character Dean Winters portrays is a great product character: He sells insurance that is supposed to help us when shit happens — without making us fear the possibilities of kitchen and dryer fires, or bad referees who run screaming from the stadium.
You all know this stuff, and it’s obvious that I do. That’s why this is my last post on the Mayhem character. What began as a roundup of clever ads that caught my gnat-size attention evolved into an experiment in search-engine optimization that ultimately hijacked this blog and its theme: I ended up focusing solely on funny advertisements, and even then, I wasn’t able to write about them as critically or in-depth as I would have liked. As it happens, my time is to blog is very limited these days, and I can’t spend it writing about Mayhem. I’m grateful to Allstate and the users of YouTube (and Facebook) for all of your support, but it’s past time for me to focus on other campaigns, other marketing elements. (That last part is code for: I’m ready to geek out over product packaging and placement! Who’s with me?)
That said, I’ll conclude this post like I’ve concluded the other Mayhem posts, with a nod to Mayhem’s popularity: At 6:30 p.m., about five hours after it was posted on Facebook, the video had 8747 likes 232 comments, and 773 shares.The timestamp on YouTube says the video was posted Sept. 26, 2012; as of 6:30 p.m. Sept. 27, there were 341 views, 0 likes and 0 comments — but it was early still.
EARLIER: A roundup of 2011 Mayhem commercials
AGENCY: Leo Burnett, the agency that brought us product characters such as the Marlboro Man, Jolly Green Giant, Tony the Tiger and Toucan Sam.
Toyota Venza girl angry about Triscuits
EDITOR’S NOTE: This post reflects my interest in advertising as a marketing student. No agencies or products are endorsed. The opinions expressed here are mine and in no way reflect the opinions of my employers.
Our heroine from the Toyota Venza commercial can be seen in the new Triscuits commercial.
That’s all I have to say about that right now because I have to go to dinner.
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RELATED: Toyota Venza Girl plugs eBay
EARLIER: Toyota Venza Girl on Yahoo!
EARLIER: More on the girl in Toyota Venza commercial
EVEN EARLIER: Toyota Venza: ‘That’s not a real puppy’
RELATED: How Lady Gaga helped me get off Facebook
Allstate’s Mayhem: A quick case study in bad DIY
EDITOR’S NOTE: This post reflects my interest as a marketing student in advertising and social media marketing. The opinions expressed here are mine and in no way reflect the opinions of my employers. No agencies or products are endorsed.
Why haven’t we seen this before? In a 15-second clip, posted on YouTube on Aug. 5, Mayhem tries to use an electric buzzsaw. (Phhhht.) At the time of this writing, it had 303 views, 56 likes, and 1 dislike (though I might click the thumbs-down myself.) At 9:48 p.m. Aug. 5, the clip had been posted on the Mayhem Facebook page for about an hour, during which 2,091 people liked the ad, 496 had shared it, and 66 people had commented on it, including Amie who said:
Crushin’ on Mayhem!
No one ever crushed on the Geico lizard, did they?
EARLIER: A roundup of 2011 Mayhem commercials
AGENCY: Leo Burnett, the agency that brought us product characters such as the Marlboro Man, Jolly Green Giant, Tony the Tiger and Toucan Sam.
Nike ad team finds greatness with ‘Jogger’
EDITOR’S NOTE: This post reflects my interest as a marketing student in advertising and sports marketing. The opinions expressed here are mine and in no way reflect the opinions of my employers. No agencies or products are endorsed.
I’m reluctant to admit that I haven’t paid attention to the London 2012 Games, but I have found myself stopped, intrigued and inspired by Nike’s “Find Your Greatness” series.
UPDATED AUG. 5 Particularly powerful is “Jogger,” the spot where we meet Nathan on a lonely road in Ohio. He’s not blazing around a track, looking like a part-time movie star. He’s an overweight kid putting one foot in front of the other in an effort to make his life better, healthier. The one-minute-three-second spot is filmed in a single, unedited shot, and the narration (provided by actor Tom Hardy) is quiet, simple, effective. We’re not focused on the shoes, just the kid. And we’re not just focused, we’re transfixed. The commercial proves the power of simplicity as it touches the part of us that has felt like the chubby kid, the part of us that has buckled under the blanket of loneliness, the part of us that is struggling to be more than what we are now.
Somehow we’ve come to believe greatness is a gift, reserved for a chosen few. For prodigies. For superstars. And the rest of us can only stand by watching.
~ Narrator Tom Hardy,
Nike “Find Your Greatness” commercial, August 2012
“Jogger” was posted on Nike’s YouTube channel on July 31. At the time of this writing, it had 284,786 views, 3,867 likes and 57 dislikes. On Nike’s Facebook page, a photo of Nathan with a link to the video had garnered 36,742 likes, 2,804 shares, and 934 comments since it was posted July 31. It is just one of a much larger campaign that Nike launched to coincide with the opening of the London Games.
Greatness is no more unique to use than breathing. We’re all capable of it. All of us.
~ Narrator Tom Hardy,
Nike “Find Your Greatness” commercial, August 2012
For more on the narrator, please visit one of these fine sites: Tom Hardy Fan, Sport Wired or Exploring Tom Hardy.
AGENCY: W+K, the folks who brought you ESPNWatch’s “Paintings” commercial.
Allstate’s Soya La Mala Suerte: Claw game spot
Allstate’s Hispanic counterpart to “Mayhem,” Soya La Mala Suerte, has a new 30-second spot that puts an unlucky driver at the mercy of a child’s toy won in a claw game. (You know, the merciless machines at Chuck E. Cheese and supermarkets that steal your money, hope, and sanity as you try to retrieve a cheap toy with mechanical claw that looks like it’s an artifact found in the depths of medieval torture room.)
What was I saying? Oh, yeah. The kid wins a ball that looks like a black cat. (Oooh! A black cat! They’re bad luck! Get it?!?!) On the way home, the sweet-faced child falls asleep in the back of the minivan, and the black cat ball rolls from his tiny little hand to the floor and then to the driver’s side, where it’s lodged under Dad’s brake pedal.
Can you guess what happens next? Well, try. Or watch the clip if the suspense is killing you.
Soya La Mala Suerte leaves the scene of the accident, cheerfully tossing the black cat ball.
And of course, the ad closes by asking:
¿Estás en buenas manos?
At the time of this writing, the clip on YouTube, posted June 25, had 106 views, 2 likes, and 1 dislike. There were no comments, but it’s early still.
In a previous post on Soya La Mala Suerte, I quoted a YouTube commenter, jackrubyuk, who said, “I like this one; he’s more sinister that the Anglo Mayhem. Subtle.” I don’t speak Spanish, but I can pick up tiny bits of dialog and the visuals do most of the work. Even if you don’t understand the clips’ script, you can still tell a difference comparing the Soya La Mala Suerte spots with the Mayhem series.
The commenter was right: Soya La Mala Suerte is more subtle, more ominous. Dean Winter’s Mayhem (which we all love) is goofier, not quite as scary. All the bad things that Mayhem makes happen certainly suck, but they don’t put the characters in the same grade of danger as the characters in the Soya La Mala Suerte ads.
The Soy La Mala Suerte (“I am Bad Luck”) Facebook page also has a more sinister tone (the threat of the falling air conditioners will certainly strike fear into almost any urban dweller). Even so, the public loves him: At the time of this writing, Soy La Mala Suerte had 124 likes on Facebook. That’s up from 99,284 on Jan. 25, 2012.
EARLIER: Soy La Mala Suerte: Billboard
RELATED: Mayhem is the Sexiest GPS Alive
Allstate rewind: Large espresso lawsuit
EDITOR’S NOTE: This post reflects my interest as a marketing student in advertising and social media marketing. The opinions expressed here are mine and in no way reflect the opinions of my employers.
Allstate is reuploading its Mayhem videos to YouTube, and because I subscribe to their channel, my phone is blowing up. Of course, this mean I stop everything to post a fan favorite. In this 30-second spot for the insurance company, Mayhem as the guy who’s going to sue you because you hit him and he spilled his large espresso in his lap.
Your 15-minute insurance may not cover my $90,000 car, so I sue you because that’s what I do.
~ Mayhem,
The guy who is going to sue you
Mayhem fans visiting this site may notice some videos are marked “expired.” I noticed this just tonight when I was checking some links. I will update the Allstate posts as soon as Allstate finishes updating its channel. Thanks for your patience — and for reading.
‘Mayhem the Guard Dog’
EARLIER: A roundup of 2011 Mayhem commercials
Happy little trees from ESPN and W+K
EDITOR’S NOTE: This post reflects my interest as a marketing student in advertising and sports marketing. The opinions expressed here are mine and in no way reflect the opinions of my employers.
Just spotted on AdWeek’s Ad of the Day: An ESPN commercial from Wieden+Kennedy features none other than Bob Ross, a TV painter whose PBS show undoubtedly distracted entertained scores of Gen Xers before the advent of cable televisions’s Golden Age and the Internet. AdWeek already has a nice overview, so I’ll just add my two cents on why this spot works: The commercial’s retro setting (e.g. the brown paneling, the Sears silk curtains, the bamboo furniture) along with the actor’s costumes and props, give it a weird but effective then-meets-now that will resonate with Xers 35 and older who were so bored at Grandma’s back in the 1970s and 1980s that they gave into Ross and his paints and spent the captive, believing they too could paint happy little trees. And that makes for a happy little memory.
You’re always taking the TV to watch all your painting shows.
~ Husband,
ESPNWatch commercial, May 2012
The ESPNWatch “Paintings” spot was posted on ESPN’s YouTube channel on May 21. At the time of this writing, it had 2,471 views.
MORE: Bob Ross painting mountains:
Who’s J?
I am Jane Q. Public: consumer and citizen. As I go, so goes the nation. Sometimes.
(But really, click the link.)
At work
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No, really, who’s J?
Jacqui Barrineau
Editor. Writer. Consultant.
I'm an editor and writer with certifications in public relations and e-Commerce. I also have a background in information technology. (In another life, I was a systems analyst.)
When I'm not editing copy for USA TODAY, I write an occasional short story or poem. My work has appeared in Calliope and the feminist journal So to Speak, and I'm a regular flash-fiction contributor to Paragraph Planet and Doorknobs & Bodypaint. Also on occasion, I interview editors for The Review Review, a comprehensive guide to literary journals and the people who produce them.
My points-of-view are collected on such esteemed outlets as Wordpress, Facebook and Twitter. The views expressed here and elsewhere are mine, not my employers'.
I live in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., with my husband, Trey, our Shetland Sheepdog, and two unhelpful-but-funny cats.
