AllState Gets Good Hands Dirty with Car Thefts and Swan Dives

allstate_goodhands.jpg

AllState, best known for its mild-mannered commercials and provocative slogan, “Are you in good hands?” conducts an out-of-character but well-orchestrated PR stunt with the help of Leo Burnett.

In the subsequent ad a man on a mission steals a vehicle and drives it surreally off the top of a Marina City parking garage in Chicago. And just when you’re like “OMGWTFBBQ,” that soothing meme of a tone takes over: “AllState. Are you in good hands?”

Nervous laughter all around.

This print ad, where a Grand Am teeters precariously over the edge of that same parking structure, follows up on the idea.

AllState, typically favouring the soberest of marketing stances, surprised us with this one. It’s a little like God making a joke at our expense. We’re sure they got some good buzz out of the deal and maybe even an account or two since people accidentally drive off narrow parking structures all the time.

Picture of Steve Hall

Steve Hall

RECENT ARTICLES

TRENDING AROUND THE WEB

The art of the Sunday call: 8 things that happen psychologically during a 12-minute phone call with an aging parent that neither person will ever name but both people feel

The art of the Sunday call: 8 things that happen psychologically during a 12-minute phone call with an aging parent that neither person will ever name but both people feel

Global English Editing

Psychology says the person who is kind to everyone and close to no one isn’t always lacking in the capacity for intimacy — they’re managing their exposure to it, and management and intimacy are fundamentally incompatible, which is why the closeness they’re managing against never quite arrives

Psychology says the person who is kind to everyone and close to no one isn’t always lacking in the capacity for intimacy — they’re managing their exposure to it, and management and intimacy are fundamentally incompatible, which is why the closeness they’re managing against never quite arrives

Global English Editing

Women who have developed something genuinely beautiful in their character by the time they reach their 60s and 70s aren’t the ones who were always kind — they’re the ones who went through enough to become bitter and chose something else instead, who were let down enough times to close off and decided to remain open anyway

Women who have developed something genuinely beautiful in their character by the time they reach their 60s and 70s aren’t the ones who were always kind — they’re the ones who went through enough to become bitter and chose something else instead, who were let down enough times to close off and decided to remain open anyway

Global English Editing

People who have quietly accumulated real financial security over a lifetime don’t talk about money the way people who are trying to signal wealth do — they’re unhurried, they never seem to be calculating, they replace things when they wear out rather than when they impress, and there’s a specific quality of ease in how they move through the world that has nothing to do with spending and everything to do with never once having to wonder whether they can

People who have quietly accumulated real financial security over a lifetime don’t talk about money the way people who are trying to signal wealth do — they’re unhurried, they never seem to be calculating, they replace things when they wear out rather than when they impress, and there’s a specific quality of ease in how they move through the world that has nothing to do with spending and everything to do with never once having to wonder whether they can

Global English Editing

I’m 65 and I spent my entire adult life being the most competent person in every room I entered and it took a therapist asking me one very quiet question at 63 to help me understand that the competence wasn’t confidence — it was the strategy of a child who learned that being needed was the closest available substitute for being loved

I’m 65 and I spent my entire adult life being the most competent person in every room I entered and it took a therapist asking me one very quiet question at 63 to help me understand that the competence wasn’t confidence — it was the strategy of a child who learned that being needed was the closest available substitute for being loved

Global English Editing

I grew up in the 1960s when a handshake still meant something and your word was a contract — and I’m watching a world where nobody believes anything anyone says anymore and wondering if we lost something irreplaceable when we decided trust was naive

I grew up in the 1960s when a handshake still meant something and your word was a contract — and I’m watching a world where nobody believes anything anyone says anymore and wondering if we lost something irreplaceable when we decided trust was naive

Global English Editing