While the rest of the Sterling Cooper staff attends a Kentucky Derby party thrown by Roger Sterling and new wife Jane, Peggy and the other writers are stuck in the office to brainstorm ideas for the Bacardi campaign. Bacardi is looking for five vacation situations for their overall concept “Daiquiri Beach.”
Peggy and the boys sip on Bacardi for inspiration but find none. Copywriter Paul snits, “We’re supposed to sit here and pretend we’re on vacation?” Peggy and Smitty try wordplay with portmanteaus like “Bacardi-licious” and “Bacardi-Eisenhower.” After some deliberation and experimentation with non-alcoholic substances, Peggy begins developing an idea that we often see in today’s beer and cocktail campaigns—the idea that alcohol can whisk us away to some exotic paradise without ever leaving home. Visualizing a hammock set up on a city rooftop, Peggy turns Paul’s negativity into a positive selling point.
October 29th, 2011
“Here at home we’ll play in the city. Powered by the sun. Perfect weather for a streamlined world. There’ll be Spandex jackets – one for everyone.”
- Donald Fagen, “I.G.Y.”
Americans of the 1950s and early ’60s had a love affair with technology that, some would say, continues to this day. Nineteen fifty seven saw global scientific cooperation with the beginning of the I.G.Y., the International Geophysical Year. And 1966 saw the conceptualization of EPCOT, Walt Disney’s “City of Tomorrow.” Post-war optimism and sustained scientific innovation led many to believe that an American utopia would be achieved through technology. It wasn’t called “The Atomic Age” for nothing.
Fanning the flames of American faith in technology was Popular Mechanics magazine. Along with competitor Popular Science, Popular Mechanics brought science and technology into the homes of average Americans with easy straight-forward language.
April 7th, 2011
Ultra Swank – Your one stop blog for retro living, style and design
Ultra Swank takes you back in time into the kitsch, chic and swank living of the 50s, 60s and the 70s. We mainly focus on the design, architecture and the lifestyle of the happy-go-lucky and space-age-living mentality of that era – but also on the music and movies that takes you back to happier times. Ultra Swank is run by Chris, a Swede born in the wrong decade that currently resides in Barcelona. Read more
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As we see more and more public spaces become smoke-free, it’s easy to forget that smoking wasn’t always considered hazardous. In the days when it was socially acceptable to smoke, cigarettes were advertised on television and endorsed by popular celebrities and cartoon characters. A carton of cigarettes was considered an appropriate gift for children to give their fathers. In the Mad Men universe, where smoking is the norm and SCDP’s biggest client is a cigarette company, the oddest thing about Roger Sterling distributing cartons of Lucky Strike to his employees is that he’s wearing the Santa suit while doing so.
December 14th, 2010
To say the television series “Mad Men” has been influential would be an understatement. Aside from influencing screen drama towards more meaningful storytelling, the show has also influenced fashion, beauty standards, and revived interest in the mid-20th century and the Atomic Age / Lounge sub-culture of today.
“Mad Men’s” approach to history has always been subtle. Its writers don’t “hang a lantern” on historical events and scream “Hey, this is important!” What’s history to us are merely the events of the day to Don, Joan, and Roger. Some of this is important to them (the Nixon / Kennedy election) and some of it is trivial (the first publication of “Lady Chatterly’s Lover” in America.)
December 10th, 2010
As of 1965, women’s liberation has not yet pervaded mainstream culture. In season four of Mad Men, we get a taste of what’s to come as women become more independent and empowered. Despite the increase in seemingly independent women, including budding feminist, copywriter Peggy Olsen, most of the ladies inhabiting fictional 1960s NYC are marriage-minded and family-oriented.
When SCDP (Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce) lands the Pond’s cold cream account, Peggy pitches the idea of skin care ritual as indulgence, a way for women to focus on themselves rather than improving their appearance to attract a man. It’s an idea we’ve seen in countless modern-day advertisements—from chocolates and bubble bath to yogurt and laundry detergent. In opposition to Peggy is freelance copywriter Freddy Rumsen, who suggests positioning the product as a tool for matrimony, “Use Pond’s and you’ll get married.” Don approves Peggy’s “Indulge Yourself” campaign but submits to a focus group to determine whether regular women (SCDP secretaries) buy into it. An emotional focus group prompts Dr. Faye Miller, a market research consultant to second Freddy’s notion that women just want to get married. It remains unclear which direction SCDP went with Pond’s but it seems Freddy wasn’t too far off the mark with his idea…just 20 years too late.
November 13th, 2010
From the The Pierre in NYC to the Cavalieri Hilton in Rome, hotels frequently serve as backdrop to exciting plot points on the hit series Mad Men. Creative ad man Don Draper and his cohorts use hotels to seduce clients and women and to celebrate their latest conquests.
The show often provides a fictional peek at the advertising strategies and campaigns of real-life brands and corporations. In season three, Don meets hotelier Conrad Hilton and forms a friendship that complicates his career. Throughout the season, Don works with “Connie” Hilton to develop a campaign for Hilton International. Don struggles to meet Hilton’s expectations to, as Connie puts it, “bring America to the world.” Don misinterprets Connie’s late-night musings and fails to put Hilton on the moon, literally and metaphorically.
October 30th, 2010
Join Ella Morton from Rocketboom as she takes us on a tour of the 1960s version of New York City portrayed in television series Mad Men. Check out where the Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce office is located, where to buy the perfect hat and the best place to zip Martinis among many other things. (Via)
By Chris
August 18th, 2010
