Allstate is Mayhem?

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I'm an Army Officer and proto-consultant. I follow most sports, invest in the stock market, watch an incredible amount of tv, consume online content to a crazy degree, and have as-of-yet-unquenched entrepreneurial urges. I'll write about all of the above. There's more at http://ssikes.com/about. Thanks for reading. Follow @stephen_sikes

March 24, 2012

Allstate is Mayhem?

This week in ‘Inattention to Detail,’ some obvious ambiguity in Allstate’s not-so-new tagline has been getting to me.

No one likes a grammar maven but I’ve been inundated by these commercials while watching March Madness the last 2 weeks (Allstate is the NCAA’s Official Insurance Partner) and their tagline, ‘no one protects you from mayhem like Allstate’ bugs me every time I hear it.

We’re smart enough to know that they aren’t implying that we’re completely unprotected from mayhem in the form of Allstate, but the ambiguity is easy enough to rectify that it smacks of apathy.

Maybe adding a ‘does’ to the end of the tagline subtracts some of the sexiness but if you’re a copy-writer and can’t come up with something that’s both sexy and grammatically correct, it’s time to find another profession.

That being said, I love those commercials. They’re genuinely funny and a welcome change from President Palmer’s voice-over (which is, nonetheless, still present at the end of the commercial), but if you’re gonna do something well, do it right.