I started this dumbest commercial category late last year and didn’t have enough contenders to announce a year’s worst. This year I’m sure I’ll have plenty of bad commercials to choose from. This one is from Allstate Insurance, the same company with the amusing Mayheim commercials.
My guess is that this series of commercials is from a different, less competent advertising agency. The whole idea of the commercial is that one or more of the characters speak with a voice of another Allstate spokesman. Why? I have no idea. It makes absolutely no sense. It doesn’t work at all, unlike the same technique used with that sub commercial “You want to be my boyfriend?”
In the commercial above, the actors speak with child-like voices. It’s clever. It’s different. So someone at an agency hired by Allstate decided to copy the idea. But it’s not clever or funny. It’s annoying. You decide.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9EBcNEKkcY
Do you know exactly when this commerical first aired? I would really appreciate a response.
Thanks
I disagree with you. See my blog titled – Allstate’s Commercial On Oneness – Are We All Interconnected?
January 10, 2012. My blog is at http://mt2mt.wordpress.com/blog and search for Allstate. This commercial is a most enlightening!
Some good adjectives for Allstate commercials are simple, stupid and annoying but “enlightening” is not one of them…
I TOTALLY agree with you. Thank God for a mute button or last channel button.
I would never switch to Allstate because the stupid commercials…People actually get paid to create these commercials….Then the actor gets paid,,,,,This is the reason insurance cost so much……NO WONDER PEOPLE TURN THE CHANNEL OR WATCH T. V. WITH NO COMMERCIALS….STUPID LICK A DOG……….
Gee, you just want to kick the hat guy into next week, “like dude we are connected”, the old guy throwing his hand in the air, yeah bent him over, he can land on top of the hat guy, will kick him too, the stupid, stupid, voice over, that voice is like chalk on a chalk board. What kind of service do you think you would get from them with all the money they spend, back to back, all day long with these ads, on multichannels.
I really think the voice-over was done to show authority. Having the actual spokesperson for Allstate speak lets the listener know that the Allstate authority is behind them. Kind of like when the President of any company speaks, it carries more weight than when a “worker” speaks. It is all about authority in my book and I feel the commercial is wonderful!
It gives no reassurance of “authority”.Its a stupid voice over by a paid spokesperson and among the most annoying on TV.
The reason behind this is that Dennis Haysbert (the original spokesman) has a great voice that is by now well known as that of ‘the Allstate spokesman’, and as Beth said, his authority and brand recognition comes through in the voice overs.
I happen to like the commercial….and I actually had to look up the name of the spokes guy, because although he seemed so familiar, I couldn’t place him. It’s a great gig for this guy.
And is this commercial really any more ridiculous than the “Geico Gecko”, or the awful band that sings about “Free Credit Score”?
So the guy has a great voice and that makes it a great commercial? There is nothing clever or original about this commercial. The voice overs aren’t even done well. The entire idea behind the commercial just doesn’t make any sense. We both sound alike so that means we are connected?
Amen about that. I find it irritating and actually humiliating that the actors can’t speak for themselves. What’s up?
Now, they’re even doing a voice over for a WOMAN, which gets even more ridiculous. How far is this going? I think they’ve worn out this idea. Next, they will have dogs talking too with that voice..
The voice of authority has got to be the reason behind the voice-over in the Allstate Ad. Agree that it does seem pointless and they would have been better off spelling it out; hey a dumpy guy driving a sloppy jalopy has a lot in common with a sharply dressed elder driving a over-priced vehicle… we both have the same car insurance, who knew! But it doesn’t get my vote because there are just too many other commercials worthy of the title Dumbest Commercial of 2012. For example, Quilted Northern asking Americans to get real about what happens in the bathroom, really? Even worse, I cannot reach for the remote fast enough to mute or switch off the screamers on the JC Penny Ads. Ditto to Carnival Cruse Line for the very same scream reason. And finally, how can you possibly think that the little kid voices in the Subway ads are clever? I don’t understand how using kid voices with the unsophisticated concept of since you are my boyfriend I get to take your sandwich could possibly increase sales of a grown-up grinder.
Allstate could very well win dumbest commercial of 2012! They have extended the stupidity since the original commercial with the dumpy dufus hitting the well dressed older man. They have done it with construction workers and even females in various other bizarre scenarios. It keeps me from even considering Allstate as an insurance option because of the annoying, negative reference to this incredibly bad series of commercials.
I thought they already have won.
Allstate doesn’t get it, they are creating new ones. they have raised the bar for stupidity. I have worn the letters off my mute button.
The voice over commercial of Allstate’s I have to mute, I cannot stand the stupidity of them. If they think so much of his voice then let him do the entire commercial, not a voice over. These are such a turn off I won’t even investigate their product.
Now, they even do a voice over for a little girl. Talk about going OVER THE TOP. Please. I think they burned this idea out for sure. It’s irritating.
When I heard the first voiced-over spot – I think it was ‘connected’.
I thought it was quick fix to the spot for some legal, policy, or some other wording change that needed to be made. And since it’s nearly impossible to edit
recorded audio, they did the voice over. But why did they
continue the dubbing? Not sure. Maybe to save face.
And to make it appear it was their intention all along!
But
And to be fair, that spot was one of the best spots being aired for
For any Co. At the time. The young actor’s facial
expression was Great!!
I agree. That expression made the spot!!!
Years ago i saw an allstate commercial that had a clear overdub in it. I was newly involed in video production so was acute to all things video production. I remember chiding the production for such an obvious oversite. Back then it wasn’t some comical and obvious overdub like man’s voice over a girls…it was middle aged man for middle aged man..and serious note. It was either a necessary correction in post production or cutting cost or something..just done sloppy. Clearly i wasn’t the only who noticed and when approached about it the company…instead of admitting defeat lol..”just go with it” and turned it into a “thing”. Like someone who can’t admit they are wrong. Just goes to show you…you can polish a bring of sh*t all you want but it is still a ….