For years, Allstate's antihero spokesman has warned about the dangers of texting drivers, faulty GPS systems and raccoons in the attic. But this time around the Mayhem is your own ineptitude.
The insurer's upcoming college football ad campaign will have its mischief-making mascot acting out a series of DIY household repair bloopers pulled straight from real home videos posted online.
"All the enthusiasm and optimism," he explains, while casually blowing up a light fixture. "With none of the skill or ability."
He falls through an attic floor, crashes a backhoe through a backyard gazebo and falls off a landing trying to paint a far-flung part of a wall.
"It's like I've got an appetite for destruction, and my house is an all-you-can-eat buffet," he says.
Allstate will tease the campaign with a series of short spots scattered throughout broadcasts of college football bowl games. People will also have the chance to vote online for the next week to decide which accident will be aired in its entirety during the national championship game on Jan. 11.
The Mayhem character caps off the minute-long preview video by calling out the real-life people whose accident videos served as his inspiration.
"So get an Allstate agent, and be protected from mayhem -- like you," he says, putting a table-turning twist on his usual catchphrase.