Back in the old days (1970s), insurance commercials spoke in somber tones, reminding people that catastrophic accidents weren’t just something that happened to someone else. But then came US General, GEICO and a host of other upstart companies that wanted a piece that fear, going to war with the big names. The goal, of course was to paint insurance coverage as just another necessary evil and one company was just as good as another. Just imagine John Belushi’s “Animal House” character Bluto as an insurance pitchman: “It just doesn’t matter!”
So then we got the GEICO executions, first with the Cave Man motif, then morphing into an actual gecko as the personification of insurance. Surely the big names in the industry thought that wouldn’t work, and I can hear bald-headed boards of directors all over the country continue to expound that their brand-smart arguments would win the day.
Apparently not.
Suddenly, in the last few years, Allstate was on TV with the booming voice of Dennis Haysbert, pointing out the Allstate product advantages over “cut rate” insurers. Could it be that insurance had become a commodity … that the majority of the public really had come to the conclusion that who they chose “just didn’t matter?”
That’s a longer discussion for another time, however, because this blog is about advertising and marketing creativity: how it’s born, regardless of industry, and who’s doing it well.
Few commercials, and most insurance commercials, certainly fail on the creativity front. They may communicate brand, but they don’t get people talking to their friends about it.
As an ad guy, I loved the spots from the beginning, believing Allstate had launched a home run idea. The one I first heard people talking about was Allstate’s “lawn mayhem” commercial, combining personification of mayhem with a wicked slice-of-life truth. Take a look: Allstate Lawn Mayhem. I can imagine fathers all over the country hollering “crap, that’s how my son thinks,” and diving off the recliner for the phone while wondering if they really were as ready for disaster as they thought.
Obviously, the commercials must have tested well, because the mayhem series spawned many more: Teenage Girl Mayhem, Storm Damage Mayhem and Satellite Dish Mayhem.
Suddenly, the race for funny insurance commercials among the big names was on. Not content to sit on the sidelines, Farmers Insurance embarked on their own brand of insurance zaniness, coming up with an umbrella theme of their own – University of Farmers – complete with wry humor and special effects. Check out one of them: University of Farmers.
Good try. But the difference between the Farmers TV spots and the Allstate spots is huge. For Allstate, perfectly cast personification of mayhem not only gets to the point, it hits the funny bone of the American psyche. And that gets people talking.
The Farmers commercial tries too hard. It tries to communicate brand difference with the undercurrent of humor, and the result is underwhelming. You don’t do enough to sell the brand and you complicate the humor element by being so overblown. The Farmers idea is a sound one, and I imagine it was a whole lot funnier in the storyboard stage. No one is talking about the Farmers commercial around the office the next day.
Meanwhile, the Allstate commercials elevate the clever idea through their strikingly simple executions. The series continues to generate momentum, and most likely, more calls to All State insurance agents. Best of all, from a creativity point of view, the Allstate executions entertain and inform in fresh ways. Anyone else come up with a laugh-out-loud spot about a team flag? Allstate Flag Mayhem
Way to go, Allstate. To borrow a phrase from Larry the Cable Guy: “Now that’s funny, I don’t care who you are.”
As a result, I just may give my local Allstate guy a call.
Michael Johnson @ Michaelj1974@sbcglobal.net
Michael Johnson @ Michaelj1974@sbcglobal.net
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