When Allstate's marketing chief, Mark LaNeve, resigned "for personal reasons" in February it left much of the ad industry wondering if the brand's star spokesman, Mayhem, would be going with him.
Since the Mayhem campaign was launched in June 2010, he has been an industry favorite and loved by consumers, who find the mischievous character hilarious.
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In the first year of the campaign, Allstate's CEO, Thomas Wilson, thought that Mayhem was helping move business. "It's working. If you look at our quotes and our new business, it's way up," he said on an earnings call in early 2011.
But at the time of LaNeve's resignation, Allstate was losing market share and revenue from property-liability insurance premiums was flat in 2011, at $25.9 billion.
The campaign, which was edgy and entertaining for a financial services client, seemed to overshadow the very product it was trying to sell.
But while Mayhem may not have brought the success that Allstate hoping for, Dean Winters has reaped the rewards of his dark comedic performance.
The actor, who declined to be interviewed, has been on a steady stream of TV shows since the late 1990s (including 30 Rock). But he often talks about the decision to play the destructive Mayhem as one of the best he has ever made.
Although he joked with Ad Age in 2011, "I wanted to become an actor so I didn't have to put on a suit and sell insurance."
Dean Gerard Winters was born July 20, 1964, in New York City.
He grew spent his early childhood in Long Island with his father, his former-model/dancer mother, two younger brothers, and his younger sister. Winters spent the majority of his formative years, however, in Arizona.
Winters is of Irish and Italian descent.
And he is fluent in Italian.
His brothers are also in the entertainment business.
Scott Winters is also an actor. Besides starring in several popular TV shows, he is best know as the guy who Matt Damon asked, "How do ya like them apples?" in Good Will Hunting.
Brad Winters is a TV writer and producer.
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