hey thanks for the shoutout! i stop by for my monday morning dose of sociology and see my work... again. you ladies are the best!

"Keiles, however, blames media itself for promulgating this stereotype, giving teens the message that their lives should fall within its boundaries."

So kids are driving poorly because they see teens driving poorly in ads? A car insurance ad being a prime example of that? Isn't that direct confirmation that they are, in fact, intelligent, narcissistic, shallow and impulsive?

I think it goes both ways - the media both reflects and reinforces teenage behaviors. Teens appear to be narcissistic, lazy, and unintelligent, the media reflects this, and in turn, that reinforces teens to continue acting narcissistic, lazy, and unintelligent (after all, it becomes more socially acceptable to if it looks like everyone else is doing it).

Calvin has the point: they won't drive bad because a TV ad says that they drive bad. Instead they will learn from the media noise that it is a "teen issue" to drive bad, and that the world will learn to deal with it. Also discouraging is the thought, that if this is the image you put in a young parent's mind, then this is what s/he is going to "accept" if only on a sub-conscious level. Recognising the real (non-stereotypical), individual qualities of teenagers is just as important as creating healthy image in the heads of those who will be of greater influence in their lives - first and foremost their folks.

The ad is brilliant though - sorry, I'm a marketer.

i wrote about it here....

http://www.teenagerie.com/2010/08/allstate-teenage-girls-are-like-sooo.html

I hate that commercial and I haven't been a teenager for almost two years XD

I don't know, something about the actor made me super-uncomfortable, claiming to be a teenage girl. Even besides the implications that teen (and women) drivers are so much more dangerous than any other group, it just makes me viscerally uncomfortable for reasons I don't understand to watch this commercial.

I think csirke makes a really good point about the "teen issues" even if I don't agree about the ad =) And part of the problem is that it's really alienating when you're a teen who doesn't fit the media mould. I didn't drink until I went to college, and even then just in settings with one or two older friends or with my parents. I've never partied. I didn't have sex until I was 18. I never understood why the only depiction of "teenager" the media seemed to give me was a raucous destructive house party full of sex and booze. And I feel like as a teen, it made me feel superior to my classmates who I assumed must have been doing those things, because why else would the media make them so prevalent? clearly, I was just a better person. Which was really harmful to relating to other people when I got myself to college and had to deal with new ones.

I'm unable to hear the audio because of my computer system. All I can say is that the Allstate ad involving Mayhem as a corporate d--k who's going to sue you after he crashes into you because "that's what I do" is pretty funny.

This campaign seems pretty even-handed.

Yeah, gotta say, teens are negatively portrayed in just about every bit of media not aimed specifically AT teens. Society really does not consider teenagers to be worthy members of society. There are a lot of exceptions made for children under 12 and senior citizens, and of course, the adults are in charge, but teenagers are neither 'cute' like children nor 'productive' like younger adults nor 'wise' like senior citizens. In real life, they're constant victims of age-ism (to the extent that laws apply to them that would be considered human rights violations if applied to adults), and in the media, they're painted as universally either vapid (like in this commercial) or the cause of everything wrong with the world. One teenager joins a gang and shoots someone, and next thing you know, every other special news report is how teenagers, yes, even YOUR teenager, are en masse causing havoc and chaos.

I'm so glad people are as equally irked by this commercial as I am. Every time I see it on t.v. I cringe.

Using stereotypes to get cheap laughs out of morons seems to be the entire aim of marketing these days. Apparently the insurance company would rather appeal to a coarse, older majority than the young, the educated or the reasonable-minded. Quite sad.

I have several BIG issues with this commercial series.

My first problem is with this commercial. I would fully accept texting while driving is a big deal and that it causes accidents. But that's not what happened here. She was texting while driving and then became "emotionally compromised" and that's what made her hit the car. That is not the stereotype that teens are bad at driving because they text but women are bad at driving because they get emotional.

Between both the commercials where Mayhem plays a woman/girl we get shown the following stereotypes for women: pink, emotional, shallow, objects. In the other commercial he plays a woman out for her morning jog. In all other commercials his actions (knocking over a branch, stopping shortly, running into a car, tearing up seats) cause the damage directly* and are active. The only anomaly here is the jogger commercial. However, when called Mayhem and put into the context of the series it seems clear that Allstate is presenting "hot babes out jogging" as the one at fault for the car damage.

It could be argued that the "hot babe" is indeed a man. However, when presented with the same gender markers as the "teen girl" (pink), it seems to be a bit of a stretch. I have also observed in my personal life that men are less likely to be referred to as "babe"s than women, though it is not impossible.

It's true this first commercial also does not portray teens well, but I find that over all, the main failure of this series is its portrayal of women. It may even be possible that the fact that Mayhem is a teen girl that allows for this obviously negative stereotype to be overlooked because of how the media is pretty remorseless with portraying teens and considering it acceptable.

*Correct following distance, good reflexes and paying attention can prevent a driver from rear-ending the person in front of them if that person stops short but then Mayhem proceeds to be active in the driver's car troubles by saying he will sue.

I hate that commercial, and it's not like we need anyone else perpetuating the should-be-dead-but-isn't "LoL Women Drivers" stereotype.

Although the second version of this commercial is far worse, the first just has Mayhem answer the phone, text on it and throw it in the back seat, but then in this one they just HAD to throw in the "emotionally compromised" bit and add ANOTHER negative female stereotype to the pile.

And what was wrong with the black guy they had as their spokesperson? You can still hear his voice in them, but I didn't mind him.

This is a tough one for me. I worked as a driving instructor for about a year, and for the most part, the kids weren't great drivers. Part of it was because they were just learning, part of it was that they didn't have the context for just how dangerous driving can be. It wasn't that they were jerks, they were just inexperienced. And, they were used to watching their parents who yes, behaved badly behind the wheel, but who also at least had the experience to know more about what a car can handle in what conditions.

But there is something super creepy about the guy saying he's a teenage girl. And the hummer being pink. And it being a hummer.

I actually saw someone texting and driving on the interstate today and it fits into this nicely. A grey sports car suddenly came right up on my bumper forcing me to get into the right hand lane. I looked over at the driver who sped past (going at least 90) and it was a man in a business suit with his wrists propped on the top of the wheel as he used both thumbs to type!

In my state it is illegal for anyone (ANYONE) to use their phone and drive. I'm not sure if this has resulted in less accidents or not, but I know before that law (it took effect last January) teens weren't allowed to drive with phones.

Teens are narcissistic because their parents and teachers specifically feel they cannot share personal details of their lives; thus, when it seems like adults have boring mundane lives, you focus on your own instead. The greatest shock for me was the transition between adults actively concealing anything interesting they did (their families, their emotions, their interests) to sharing it with me as an equal. Meanwhile, teens are often incredibly passionate about helping others, but lack the agency and money to act on those passions, so we assume that because they can't spend their free time donating money and time to charities (activities which usually require a car, money, free time without homework to do, and permission from parents-- sometimes to put oneself in harm's way), they don't care.

Teens are "unintelligent" because a) they have underdeveloped judgment centers in their brains, and b) they lack the personal experience to understand what to do in various situations. Yes, a teenager is more likely to freak out if they are in an accident and drive off or something. But that's not because they're stupid, it's because they're scared, this has never happened to them before, they've been told again and again their parents will kill them if they screw up, and they lack the judgment to sit there and reason out what to do. So I will agree teens are more impulsive. I won't say that's a reason to condemn them.

As for lazy, people who say that are usually either reacting to the natural shift in teen sleep schedules (can't blame a teenager for a biological need to sleep late!) or else they don't understand that most teenagers will have-- and DO-- up to 4 hours of homework EACH NIGHT. I'd like to see adults work a mentally demanding unpaid 8 hour shift with 7-8 wildly different topics they must know incredible detail about, work another 5 or 6 hours immediately after it in a soul-crushing dead-end job that is either physically exhausting or involves customer service, then toss another couple hours of intense unpaid mental work on top of that and not be tired and disinclined to weed the garden and take out the trash.

And the STUPIDEST argument is deploring them for being tech-obsessed. OH NO TEENAGERS HAVE MASTERED COMPLEX TECHNOLOGY AT INCREDIBLY FAST RATES, AND LEARNED HOW TO SEAMLESSLY INTEGRATE IT INTO THEIR LIVES. OH NO TEENAGERS HAVE ADVANCED TECHNICAL SKILLS THAT MAKE THEM ABLE TO COMMUNICATE, ACQUIRE DATA, AND SOLVE PROBLEMS FASTER AND MORE EFFICIENTLY THAN THEIR PARENTS. God forbid.

Don't they have another ad in this campaign with "Mayhem" as an "attractive jogger" who makes you (the default male) drive into telephone poles? To be honest, these commercials offend my lady sensibilities way harder than my teenager ones.

For everyone who cannot see how minimum standards in appearance differ for men and women, start from the basics, not just work.

My brother and I have the same sleep uniform. Gym shorts and a t-shirt. He can wake up, brush his teeth, add some deodorant and shoes and he can leave the house. He won't look polished but people won't point and whisper. If I were to do that, it would be bad. A woman without her hair brushed? Without a bra on?

Look at the adjective for men who haven't shaved for a while (assuming they don't have a beard): scruffy. I have never heard of a woman who had obviously slacked on her shaving as "scruffy". I have heard "gross". I've also heard of women who feel uncomfortable leaving the house with leg hair apparent. Is that socialisation? Yeah, but it's also a higher standard.

I've also had people refer to tweezing/waxing/threading eyebrows as "hygiene" even though it's no such thing. The fact that a completely arbitrary beauty standard that mostly (and more vigorously) applies to women gets conflated with health, is very telling of what society expects.

Sometimes higher standards aren't obvious like make-up or heels. But I think the fact that these things might be harder to think of just shows how deeply ingrained it is in our culture.

hahaha that was really funny. i had a nice giggle

Oh my God!!! It's a commercial, and a joke!!! Does the movie Psycho imply all guys dress like their mom and kill people? Is the Shining trying to imply fathers always want to kill their family? Is Hannah Montana saying all girls are secretly over dramatized pop singers? Nope. They sure don't.

I understand that this ad was purely taking advantage of the stereotypes that are already out there, but I, too, find it quite offensive. No, I am not offended because I think it is sexist or because it attacks a certain age group. I find it offensive because no one seems to think twice about its bashing of young girls. If it were mocking the stereotype that Asians are bad drivers, or if it somehow made fun of black people or Jewish people or whatever other group of people, there would be lawsuits and all of the civil rights leaders would be up in arms. The point is, Allstate shouldn't be able to get away with freely mocking one group of people when it is not acceptable to poke fun at others.