Mad Men Advertainment

Tonight continued the Mad Men saga on AMC. My wife and I dutifully have watched each episode, and rightfully despise Pete Campbell.

At the first commercial break, I thought “oh neat, they’re also putting up unbranded trivia answers intermixed with the commercials.”

Then I realized, each time they did that, the following commercial was also the answer. One example was the branded “bumper” that showed us how many credit card transactions take place annually. Immediately followed a Chase Sapphire commercial.

It was a subtle nod at how Mad Men (the show, not the plot) continue to mix up the ad world, and I like it. What I don’t like is when the advertisers try to be too cool. Like Dove. Right after their little nod from Mad Men, they go straight into a commercial about how to advertise Dove. But it is an ad. And not a very good one in my opinion. It seemed cheap. I would’ve loved to see Dove continue their “Real Beauty” campaign instead. Bring it back to the brand message, not some one-off idea.

I also remember when I picked up Season One on DVD. Inside, there was an insert ad from Clorox. Simply with a white dress shirt with a red lipstick stain and copy reading “Getting guys in the ad world out of hot water for years” (or something similar). I thought it was clever, it made me smirk, and I remember it about two years later. The downside, the campaign is fully integrated (which obviously isn’t necessarily bad) and the same style Clorox ad appears as banners and interstitials on AMCtv.com – plus they had it as a commercial during the show today.

My points are these. I appreciate the fact that Mad Men “gave a nod” to their advertisers with the trivia prior to the ads – it was smart, subtle and inoffensive on all accounts. I didn’t like when the ad tried to fake being Mad Men, or continue to run the same campaign two years later by transplanting it in a new medium.

That being said, we’ll still tune in next week.