Mayhem, the embodiment of all the reasons you need good insurance, has appeared in the form of everything from a random windstorm to a typical teenage girl in a series of commercials for Allstate. Now, just in time for the holidays, Mayhem, portrayed by actor Dean Winters, is seen as a Christmas tree in a new spot titled “Douglas-fir.”
As the spot opens, Mayhem, standing in a Christmas tree lot amongst dozens of other trees, proclaims himself boastfully to be “the world’s greatest Douglas-fir. I’m the perfect shape. I’m the perfect color.”
A little girl shopping for a tree with her family agrees, and she convinces her parents this tree is the one for them.
Of course, we’ve seen enough of these spots–created by Leo Burnett, Chicago, and directed by Phil Morrison of Epoch Films–to know that as perfect as this tree may look, something bad is going to happen because of it. Sure enough, disaster strikes.
After purchasing the tree, the happy family (with Gordon Roberts as the dad, Jenn MacLean-Angus in the role of mom and Gemma Dahl and Janna Grant playing the daughters) is driving home with their find strapped to the roof of their minivan.
Unbeknownst to them, however, the twine holding the tree in place snaps, and Mayhem goes flying into the street as they turn a corner, landing in the path of an oncoming vehicle, which swerves to avoid running over the tree.
The TV commercial serves up a scare–after all, the goal is to show us why it’s so important to have insurance that you can count on. But, like all of the other spots in the campaign, “Douglas-fir” is also darkly humorous. For starters, the sight of our Mayhem protagonist being wrapped up in tree netting a few seconds into the spot is priceless.
“When we presented the idea of Mayhem being a tree in this spot, one of the clients said it would be funny to see him go through the netting machine, and I think that turned out to be the funniest part of the spot,” related Leo Burnett creative director Britt Nolan.
Morrison, who shot the spot in Calgary with Peter Donahue as cinematographer, gets a kick out of what Mayhem has to say as he emerges from the netting machine.
Talking about his Christmas tree scent (FYI: Douglas-firs are indeed known for their wonderful fragrance), Mayhem describes it as “like making love to a lumberjack.”
Morrison credits the creatives from Leo Burnett with coming up with that humorous line during the course of the shoot., adding that much more to the final commercial.
Furthermore, Winter’s deadpan delivery enhances every clever line that comes out of his mouth.
Having played Mayhem in more than a dozen commercials, the actor, who is known for roles ranging from violent prison inmate Ryan O’Reily on Oz to Tina Fey’s beeper salesman boyfriend Dennis Duffy on 30 Rock, has the character down pat, according to Morrison who credits the actor for staying true to the loveable badass that Mayhem is no matter what thing or person he inhabits.
Let it snow
While Winters could be counted on to deliver, the weather couldn’t when it came time to shoot “Douglas-fir.” Given the holiday theme, it was decided the spot would be shot in Calgary, where there would be plenty of snow on the ground. But when it came time to shoot the commercial, there wasn’t any snow on the ground.
Thankfully, Morrison’s crew was able to churn out fake snow that looked real.
Another challenge in making the spot: Pulling off the accident caused by Mayhem’s fall. “The accident was a huge concern,” Nolan said. “The media buy got bigger as the commercial was in production, and it got a little bit more broad and into some more family programming, so we wanted to be really careful not to do something that would terrify anybody, but it still had to be exciting and interesting.”
Morrison credits production designer Jeff Mann with coming up with an idea that added drama to the accident without pushing it over the edge.
“At one point, the car was just going into the snowbank, but then Jeff had the great idea of putting that junction box in the snowbank, so the car careens off it and starts to spin on the ice,” related Morrison.
“That allowed there to be some elements of action in there,” continued the director, “but didn’t present a danger for anybody.”.
Full plates
To ensure more control in how the accident was constructed in the editing room, the elements of the entire mishap were shot in individually.
“I wish I could tell you exactly how many plates there are, but every element of that accident happened at a different time,” Nolan explained. “We really wanted to have the latitude in the edit to be able to make it intense or be able to pull it back and make it safer if we needed.”
Matthew Wood of The Whitehouse cut “Douglas-fir.”
“It came together much more easily than I thought it would,” Nolan said. “The timeline was really tight, and Matthew nailed it really quickly, so it was a huge relief to look at that first cut and know it was going to work.”
