Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 1, 1995 TAG: 9507030057
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JEFF STURGEON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The phone hadn't started ringing Friday afternoon at Judith Muse's home in Rocky Mount, but it will.
In Friday's editions of at least three national newspapers, there she was, standing next to the president of Allstate Insurance Co., her employer, in a centerfold ad spanning part of two pages.
Although she will need to explain that creative photography placed her alongside Allstate President Ed Liddy in print, her appearance in the ad was an honor all the same - and just plain fun.
"I was one of the lucky ones chosen to go to Chicago," said Muse, a 25-year employee of Allstate's regional office in Roanoke County. "They flew us up. All expenses paid."
Muse helped mark a volcanic event in the company's history: Allstate's $10.7 billion spinoff Friday from Sears, Roebuck & Co. of Chicago.
She was one of 18 employees chosen for an unusual advertising campaign - no small accomplishment in a company with 46,000 workers. The campaign revolves around a large employee picture reproduced Friday in The Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Chicago Tribune; it will run later in Forbes and Fortune.
The photo showed 16 employees and two senior executive standing side-by-side, calling to mind a giant human chain the ad's creators said represented the whole company. Those pictured were cupping their hands in the trademark gesture of the "Good Hands" people.
Allstate will "get the job done. With pride," the ad said.
The company selected rank-and-file workers for the ad so as to show a representative cross section of its employees. Top executives asked field supervisors to suggest employees in good standing, and Muse's name came up. She flew in April to Chicago and was shuttled to Allstate headquarters in suburban Northbrook, Ill., where she spent most of two days in a basement studio.
Modeling isn't necessarily painless, she said. "I had bruises from trying to cross my arms in the position we did it in."
As for her brush with senior management, the photographer posed subjects in groups of four or five and later combined the shots into one rectangular picture. Seemingly, Muse and Liddy stood elbow to elbow. Liddy, in fact, was in a different group.
Allstate spared no expense treating her like part of the company's inner circle. "We had a makeup crew," and the senior market underwriting assistant was taken to dinner via limousine.
by CNB