Why I won't be buying insurance from Allstate

[hatman]

Have you seen this ad from Allstate insurance?

It's part of their series of "Mayham" commercials, where the personification of Mayham takes various forms (distracted teenage girl, windstorm, dog, etc.), causing damage to cars.

In this one, Mayham is a "hot babe out jogging." A man driving by gets distracted looking at her "headband" and crashes his car. Cheap insurance wouldn't cover that, but Allstate will.

What we can learn from this:

• An attractive woman out on the sidewalk is pure Mayham. Cars will crash, and it's her fault.
  
• It's okay to objectify women.
  
• It's not just okay; it's funny.
  
• Not only that, it's perfectly natural, perhaps even unavoidable, that men will ogle women to the point that they lose control of their cars.
  
• Unlike other insurance companies, Allstate understands this and will cover the damages.
  
• If you are an Allstate customer, even if you're not so crude, sexist, and irresponsible as to put lives (including your own) in danger just to get a better look at a female stranger, your premiums will help Allstate cover people who do.

That's Allstate's stand.

Remind me never to buy insurance from them.

Comments

[pgwfolc.livejournal.com]

Sorry if I came on too strong. Got caught up in unpacking ideas. (Also, I didn't think you'd be familiar with a lot of US-only stuff, like the other ads and the specifics of how car insurance works here.)

Hadn't really thought of blaming the guy. I wonder what that says about me. Though I think it's more because the guy is shown as the customer, the victim of Mayham that Allstate is there to support. Hard to blame him in that context, even if he is acting like a pig. Still, it's a point. The flipside of the implication that a "hot babe" is an aspect of Mayham is that men can't control themselves around one.

But yeah... agree to disagree, I think.

Thanks for your thoughts. :)