Be Prepared for Mayhem When teenagers turn sixteen years old and are handed the keys to their parents’ cars, the affects drinking alcohol and cell phone usage have on their driving and motor safety have been pummeled into their brains. However, the affects of other factors such as, stress and emotions have not been emphasized as clearly. According to an article on DMV.org, “feeling worried or annoyed, whether it is related to driving or not, can have the same negative impact as an intense cell phone conversations or the consumption of alcoholic dinks” (Davis). Allstate is a well-respected auto insurance company, which thrives upon accident forgiveness and keeping their customers protected through safety campaigns. In July, Allstate launched its “Mayhem” series of commercial advertisements. In these commercials, Mayhem is portrayed as a physical person causing unavoidable trouble to automotive owners, such as sidewalk distractions, extreme weather conditions, young pets, and teenage destruction. Mayhem overall advertises that turmoil is everywhere and, without raising rates, Allstate will protect their drivers from these unavoidable dangers when other insurance companies will not. Allstate effectively advertises its services by using a credible actor, who humorously addresses emotional parental topics, and entertainingly exaggerating the teenage girl stereotype in a familiar setting. In this specific commercial, Mayhem is portraying an exaggerated, distracted, and emotional teenager who is driving through a crowded parking lot and unknowingly sideswipes a parked car. The intended target audience is adults, both with and without children, who are seeking affordable and reliable car insurance. This commercial appeals to the audience’s emotion by portraying the stereotype of a typical teenage girl, who is paying more attention to her social dilemma with a friend than on driving, a true fear for all drivers and parents. As far as driving, young teenagers have the least amount of experience and are therefore thirty percent more likely to get into a wreck than and adult or experienced driver (Davis). To add insult to injury, the adolescent girl, played by a male actor for comedic relief, is texting while driving, a negative stereotype of high school and young adult drivers in today’s society. While it is more expensive to pay for teenage car insurance, averaging “more than $34 billion nationwide in medical treatment and property damages” for fifteen to twenty-five year olds (Nauert), this commercial is not personally attacking young women by exploiting them all as unreliable drivers. Rather, the commercial is addressing driver’s wary fears of insurance rate consequences for accidents or drivers they have no control over. By Allstate addressing the stereotypical teenage girl, and teenage driver, they are affirming the truth to the perception according to Nauert. Allstate uses these stereotypes to its advantage since hit and run accidents have increased by fifteen percent, for young adults aged fifteen to twenty-five, in the past three years. Thus, drivers are searching for car insurance that does not penalize them for hit and run damages, especially those they cannot control. Since this stereotype is used in a comedic way, by a man imitating a teenage girl, Allstate is effective in their attempts to sell insurance to concerned adults without insulting the teenage population. They are able to acknowledge the risk without pushing away potential buyers. With today’s media searching for every detail of celebrities’ past and present actions, it is difficult to find an actor or actress with credibility among adults. Dean Winters, known for his role on the HBO prison drama Oz, plays the character Mayhem, a personification of everything that can go wrong for a car owner. Since Winters has an adult fan base and has steered clear from the celebrity social scene, Allstate successfully advertises to its middle aged, adult audience, which adds both integrity and reliability to their celebrity endorsement tactic. More specifically, if Allstate had used Miley Cyrus, a young actress who has stirred up much controversy in the media, Allstate could have potentially lost credibility and many supporters or clients would question the seriousness and integrity of the company and its motives. Even though Winters is depicted as a young teenage girl in the commercial, his straight face and little emotion, adds to the dialogue and humor. His grim attitude helps demonstrate the gravity of texting while driving and the destruction it can cause. By doing so, Winters appeals to parents in the hope of protecting their children from poor choices. By using an actor who is most recognizable by middle-aged adults, Allstate responsibly uses celebrity endorsement to attract its target audience and persuades them to buy their services. Appearances and first impressions are crucial when illustrating a serious issue in a limited time slot, therefore every detail in a commercial must symbolically stand for a point the director is trying to make. In order to depict an accidental, clumsy, and irresponsible Mayhem, his face is covered in bruises, scratches and bandages, and accessorized with tangled hair. However, he is also wearing a neat suit and tie to add veracity; he should not be ignored. His attire and appearance, more importantly, allow Mayhem to be relatable for a range of people between, lazy people who just get out of bed to hard working executives, further reinforcing that Allstate does not cater to the rich nor the poor, but everyone in the general public and treats everyone equally. To build the young girl character, Mayhem is texting on a glitter phone and wearing pink sunglasses, both common accessories of a sixteen-year-old girl. The teenage girl stereotype advances as a vapid social conflict occurs and the teenager directs her attention away from the road and onto her emotions. Either due to panic or simply a lack of caring, she does not take responsibility after she recklessly sideswipes a parked car and simply responds by saying, “OMG, Becky’s not even hot” and keeps driving off. This makes fun of teenage girls who say irrelevant and shallow things about girls they dislike. Even if potential insurance customers do not have teenage drivers to occupy their time and bank accounts, the universal fear of being a victim of a hit and run, can apply to everyone. The physical setting of this commercial is a crowded parking lot of a mall, a typical hang out location for the stereotypical teenage girl. The setting of a situation can present more to the reader than simply a visual backdrop. It can also dictate and support the character’s emotions; a beautiful setting supports a happy character, while a depressing setting can bring out any number of unwanted emotions for the character. Here, every driver can relate to the stress and irritation of driving through a crowded parking lot with the fear of someone pulling out in a blind spot. The narrow lanes of the parking lot allow little time to react when confronted with a blinding advancing car in reverse. This scenario emphasizes a stressful and emotional driving situation, which commonly causes accidents. While the series of Mayhem commercials can be viewed as stereotypical, materialistic, and chauvinistic, Allstate proves to be poking fun at a humorous topic and it does not come across in an offensive way. In fact, Allstate’s “Mayhem” commercials are effective for that exact reason; they poke fun at circumstances that thousands of Americans find themselves in every year and beyond that, they offer their support and understanding. Mayhem’s use of humor relates to situations that every American recognizes and has experienced in a humorous way that most can laugh at. This allows people to laugh at themselves, and feel comforted, as long as they have Allstate insurance that covers them from accidents they cannot control. The message, as the disembodied voice of Dennis Haysbert tells us at the end of each commercial, relates that Mayhem is supposedly everywhere and takes all different forms, and Allstate can protect citizens from any and all the accidents that may occur throughout their driving experience. Mayhem’s main purpose is to shed humor and light heartedness into unpleasant car accidents, and the use of a credible actor, relatable setting, and universal stereotypes directly persuades the audience to identify with Allstate’s integrity and credibility. With its use of a credible actor, relatable setting and circumstance, Allstate effectively sells its services to the audience by highlighting on a serious topic in a comedic way.