Ok, I admit it, I am a Mad Men junkie. It may have something to do with the massive crush that I have on Don Draper, but there is also something strangely alluring about the show itself. The tone, setting, characters, costumes and overall perfect pitch of a bygone era are perfectly captured within each episode and it keeps me coming back for more. Now that season three is winding down, I find myself dreading the demise of my Sunday night Sterling Cooper fix.
Validating my obsession with the fictional character of Don Draper, are the legions of respondents for the recent Askmen.com poll, who unanimously voted Draper as their #1 choice for Most Influential Man 2009. While it is odd to see a fictional character from a cable show ousting former winner President Obama from the top spot, it reaffirms our fascination with the mystique of Don Draper. As Askmen.com points out, celebrities are brands, with carefully constructed images, and most of us are just as likely to have a drink with Don Draper as with anyone else on the list.
It’s been interesting to observe how imaginary characters from a make-believe agency dating back five decades ago are doing their part to stimulate the economy in 2009. When season two of the series debuted on DVD back in the summer, an elaborate promotional blitz was launched. The partners joining forces for the “Mad Men” marketing blitz included Banana Republic, Clorox, Vanity Fair, InStyle and Variety.
Banana Republic launched a massive in-store promotion cross-marketing the Mad Men styling with their mannequins and offering up an opportunity to appear in the series. They promoted it with magazine ads and email campaigns, as well as via custom landing pages on the BR website. Idea being, women who were connecting with the show on an emotional level, could access MadMen style in 2009, effectively bringing the characters to life.
The MadMen marketing phenomenon illustrates how units of companies like Comcast, Discovery Communications, the Walt Disney Company, NBC Universal, the News Corporation, Time Warner and Viacom are helping newspapers, magazines, TV and radio stations, Web sites and other media outlets — not to mention agencies that specialize in tasks like public relations and event marketing — make up for budget cutbacks in formerly lucrative categories like automobiles, financial services, luxury goods and retailing.
A stark contrast from the MadMen time to now is that the days of the art director and copywriter, account executive and media buyer are over. The distinctions between advertising and PR have evaporated.
We are in a new era, where social marketers have arrived and social media is the driving force of interactivity.
One has to wonder how Don Draper would have fared in 2009? The rules may have changed, but the game is still the same, in many ways. Just different tools in the marketer’s tool box.
“If you don’t like the conversation, change it. Advertising is based on one thing, happiness. And you know what happiness is? Happiness is the smell of a new car. It’s freedom from fear. It’s a billboard on the side of the road that screams reassurance that whatever you are doing is okay. You are okay.” (Don Draper)
