Lord

Is Allstate ad covertly racist ?

I have been slightly amazed that no one that I know of has pointed out the situation in one of Allstates car insurance ads. The ad has a caucasian hippie looking dude supposedly crashing into a caucasian older business class looking dude. But the interesting part is that it uses their black male spokesperson voice to give some of the lines through the hippie looking dude and goes on to say that the two characters are like connected to each other, and then the older one saying no they are not.

Now, why did they actually use the caucasian hippie dude instead of the black male spokesperson to give those lines ?
How much differently would the same lines have been perceived if it had been the black man's image used instead of the caucasian hippie's image ?


Does someone have a better link? :

Autumn Osterham

Maybe because that voice has come to represent Allstate much the same way the old dude's voice represents the Diabeetus thing. If you didn't already know the voice was a black man would it still seem racist?

More classist to me than anything else, the older guy assuming the longhair had substandard insurance.

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Brenda Connolly

Tell me you are joking.

Elysium Hynes

Is taking shots at hippies racist now?

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Brenda Connolly

Not if you hit them.

Lord

It wasn't hippies being considered racist that I was talking about, it was the use of one in place of the official spokespersons image, even though they used his voice through the hippie. Also, the fact that it would have created alot more outrage if they Had used the official spokesperson's image to deliver those same lines.

Brenda Connolly

Oh Lord

Misty Harley

Looks more like some sort of hack job to be honest. AllState has way better commercials with better timing then that.

Also..the only thing that the is the Voice of the Agent (said in sonic boom echo) is the logo Allstate part and it's done for both characters, not just the hippie.

And since those are characters, chosen because old guy probably would have been a hippie when he was younger it fits those particular characters.

No need to seek out racism where none exists. There's plenty of other examples you could have found instead of 'but if they did it this way....people would be screaming"

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Brianna Ort

Dennis Haysbert ...

Lord

How different do you think their 'Chaos' ads would be perceived if it was a black man instead of a white one ?

Eboni Khan

What did Allstate do to you?

The commercial is dumb, but there is nothing wrong with it.

Brianna Ort

The characters in the various ads are channeling the Voice of Allstate. His deep, unmistakeable voice.

Nothing more.

Eboni Khan

but the voice is black

Lord

To tell the truth, I probably woudn't have given it a second thought or a second look, or even thought about the 'Chaos' ads...if they hadn't used Dennis Haysbert's voice through the white guys.

Brenda Connolly

Brenda Connolly

Did Jeremy Lin put you up to this?

I really think you are reading way too much into this.

Lloyd Newman

Is it racist to use the same voice with a Hispanic actor? Or a Black actor?

Allstate's Channel - YouTube


Someone needs to get a life...

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Ann Launay

They did it that way because their 'connection' is Allstate and Dennis Haysbert (and his voice) represent Allstate. There's no racism.

And it's mayhem, not chaos.

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Imnotgoing Sideways

The voice overs are a form allegory. You may note that the only time the actors are voiced over is when they use words and phrases which cue back to prior Allstate advertisements. The message conveyed is that the statements made in their commercials reflect in real world situations. To the fantastic example of peoples' voices actually changing to sound like the commercial. (^_^)

It's an example of whimsy and a means of saying "this is what you get" by embedding a commercial within a commercial. Dennis Haybert's voice, due to his tenure, has become the symbolic voice of Allstate. In sorts, the message that it conveys is that they've been around a long time with an uncommonly strong dedication to service. (^_^)

Dennis Haybert's race in this commercial is no more significant than James Earl Jones' voice acting of Darth Vader. The fact of the matter is that both have a strength in tone and diction uncommon to everyday spoken language. (^_^)

Now... If it were Lil Wayne, that'd be a totally different story. =^-^=

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Link

Lord

The trick is, does the ad work without sounding racist, if you put someone of the same race as the voice into the image ? The one you pointed to, does. The one I pointed to does not.

Lloyd Newman

Haybert is not Hispanic...

MissKillian Barbosa

It would be the same if they used the that annoying red lipped lady's voice in a Progressive commercial or that gecko's voice in a Geico commercial. They used the spokespersons voice on two characters in their commercial.. And this should be a nono because he's Black?

(Gets on her political soapbox and yells at the gathering crowd)

"Now a Black man can't dub over a white man's voice without the world ending? Now we have to tippy toe around the use of a man's voice because of the color of his skin? Oh..Oh So it's ok if Gene Hackman can do Lowe's but let a BRUH-ther try to get some voice over work and it's 'Good Lord, the sky is falling!' Humph.. Always trying to keep a brother down!"

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Silly Ol' Killy Dilly

Asher Bertrand

You're not explaining yourself. How does using a black man's voice over on a white man's lipsynch to talk about something as mundane as car insurance conceivably racist at all?

Do you mean the black man took the white guy's job, or what? Or does it just make you uncomfortable to hear a black man? I'm so not getting this. Is CNN racist for using James Earl Jones' voice? Or was Star Wars?

So many layers of LOL.

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Asher Bertrand

Geico is racist to Australians AND geckos!

MissKillian Barbosa

Funny, that Gecko used to have a proper English Accent..

That Aussie took a Englishman's Jerb!