Mad Men, Classic TV and Corporate Branding
50s and 60s Shows, Commercials Put Retro Hit in Context
May 14, 2009
On AMC’s critically acclaimed 60s’-era drama Mad Men, Lucky Strike cigarettes figure prominently as one of ad exec Don Draper’s key accounts.
Other actual or would-be clients of the Sterling Cooper agency include American Airlines, Maidenform bras, Clearasil and Popsicles.
The brands featured on the AMC series are real products, many of which are still available today. They root the show in reality as much as historical events like the death of Marilyn Monroe and the Cuban Missile Crisis do. They're at the heart of Mad Men's authenticity.
Watch Classic TV: Deepen the Mad Men Experience
Older viewers and fans of old-time movies and TV marvel at the meticulousness of the research undertaken by the Mad Men creative team. The accuracy of the portrayals of period décor, costumes and vernacular has earned the show high praise from those who lived through that era. Younger fans of Mad Men who have never had any interest in classic TV may now find shows from the '50s and '60s compelling in ways they might not have before.
Programs like the Loretta Young Show, the Jack Benny Show and Make Room for Daddy are the shows the characters on Mad Men and their contemporaries were watching or would have watched. (Don Draper claims to hate TV, but Art Director Sal Romano refers to the previous night's Lorretta Young Show in one episode.) They help the modern viewer acclimatize to the social norms and conventions of the time. And they offer insight into the evolution (or not) of advertising and branding over the decades.
Product Placement, Brand Integration, Celebrity Endorsement
In TV shows of the 1950s – and the radio shows that preceded many of them – the connection between the sponsor and the program was driven home repeatedly each episode. The sponsor and its product appeared before the show, during the show, and at the end, in a direct and highly integrated manner. (When packaged for DVD release or rebroadcast on stations like Nick at Night or TV Land, many shows include the ads. The ads are part of the show.) Viewers were given no opportunity to forget that a particular show was “being brought to you by” Toni, Proctor & Gamble, or Nabisco.
The original opening credits for I Love Lucy, for example, featured an animated Lucy and Ricky Ricardo descending a large pack of sponsor Philip Morris' cigarettes. Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz did celebrity endorsements for Philip Morris during I Love Lucy's commercial breaks, appearing as themselves, rather than their characters. And Lucy, Ricky, Fred and Ethel all smoked the sponsor’s brand at one time or another. (Mark Burnett wasn’t doing anything new with those damned Doritos on Survivor.)
Imagine if an episode of CSI began with an image like this swirling Dodge hood ornament before the fatality of the week was found. Or if Chris Meloni and Mariska Hargitay were to step out of character at the end of an episode of Law and Order: SVU to extol the virtues of “the most stylish new automobile in America.” Danny Thomas and Jean Hagan do that the end of this episode of Make Room for Daddy (See above link, 28:22. And check out the ad for the American Tobacco Company at 30:00). Most stars did.
Lucky Strikes and the Jack Benny Show
In an episode of the Jack Benny Show entitled “Bogart,” an ad for sponsor Lucky Strike cigarettes precedes Benny’s opening monologue. The ad is a testimonial featuring white-haired football coach Lou Little who, for a moment, disappears behind a cloud of his own cigarette smoke. Little is followed by a Lucky Strike spokesperson who further lauds the product.
The ad is by turns humorous and horrifying – so much have attitudes towards smoking changed. And this assessing the scope of social change is a big part of what’s so remarkable about watching Mad Men; it’s also part of what makes these old shows so interesting. Artifacts like these are gems.
(Once it gets going Benny's monologue is all about the sponsor, who doesn't feel the integration of the mid-show commercial is strong enough. It's hard to imagine the sponsor being any more integrated into the show than it already was. Interestingly, Benny introduces his program as "the Lucky Strike" show, not the Jack Benny Show.)
The 1960s: A Time of Tumult and TV
When Mad Men opens in 1960, the brave new world of television had been around for nearly a decade, but it was still early days. TV will become increasingly important as the events of that tumultuous decade unfold over the coming season(s). Tuning in to period TV makes for interesting viewing on its own, and a richer experience for any viewer of Mad Men.
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