7 best advertising tips and moments from Mad Men
AMC’s Mad Men premiered in 2007, showing what goes behind creating ads for various brands. Advertising as a field relies on creativity and Mad Men showed us how this creativity comes with a price.
Mad Men although is a mirror for the dynamics of marketing industry, still has some of the best tips and moments that a person in the same industry can use. From promoting Lucky Strike to Kodak’s Carousel, here are some of the best moments and tips from Mad Men.
Viewers can go through this list and choose to rewatch a pitch or recap some of the best moments for various products from Mad Men.
Disclaimer: This article reflects the author’s opinion and is ranked in a particular order of the author's favourite moments from the show.
Lucky Strike, Kodak's Carousel, and five other amazing advertising tips and moments from Mad Men
1) Life Cereal - season 4, episode 6
Don Draper is known for his creative ideas. However, sometimes his indiscipline lands him in some terrible situations. One such moment happens in episode 6 of season 4 of Mad Men called The Waldorf Stories, where Don goes on an unexpected path to win a client.
After winning a Clio Award, Don struggles in a client meeting and can't match the brilliance of his famous 'Kodak pitch'. Running out of ideas, he ends up using a cliché tagline he overheard from someone applying for an internship. Surprisingly, the clients love it, and Don hires the intern, even though they think in a very basic way. It’s not Don’s proudest moment, but it shows how even simple ideas can win over clients.
2) Heinz beans - season 5, episode 7
Megan saves the day by presenting a campaign that is based on the simplest of observations. Heinz beans are struggling to maintain a desired reputation, which eventually leaves them with no choice but to fire SCDP from being their creative agency.
Megan (Jessica Parè) prompts Don (Jon Hamm) in the right direction and insists he present an idea that she had in the morning. Don’s artless tag-team featuring Peggy (Elisabeth Moss) delivers a story of how a mother serves a child with Heinz beans in various eras, and their tagline ‘Some things never change’ sticks with the client, and they revoke their decision of firing SCDP. The episode gives a valuable lesson that ideas can come from anywhere or anyone.
3) Hilton Hotels - season 3, episode 9
Don’s charisma and intelligence often get him respect in a room. However, his qualities are put to the test when the founder of Hilton hotels (Chelcie Ross) is unmoved by his pitches, in one of the episodes of Mad Men.
The campaign on Hilton hotels is quite elegant and eye catching yet the founder of the Hilton hotel doesn’t approves the campaign. He wanted Don to think of Hilton being on the moon in some manner but Don clearly ignored that thought and presented something amazing but just not the expectations of client.
This shows that even great ideas and pitches are met with a defeat if they go out of the brief given by the client and sometimes clients are the people behind killing a great idea.
4) Jaguar - season 5, episode 11
Season 5, episode 11, named ‘The Other Woman', presents viewers with one of the most heart-wrenching moments of Mad Men. A sad reality, a web of sexist lines is thrown in the air, and the beauty of a woman and a car are measured through the same scale.
Don Draper presents a pitch on how Jaguar cars are something that you can’t set a price on and how they are the most beautiful object a man can finally own. As Don presents the pitch, the lines are carefully knitted to keep a car and a woman on the same pedestal, henceforth objectifying women.
Don’s pitch is intertwined with Joan (Christina Hendricks) sleeping with a man just for the benefit of SCDP, which shows the evil reality of the 80s era where women were treated like sex objects by corporate giants and narrow-minded individuals.
5) Lucky Strike - season 1, episode 1
The pitch that started it all, the audience gets to see the first time genius of Don Draper. Initially losing the interest of investors of Lucky Strike cigarettes, Don comes up with a unique pitch of how it is the best time for cigarettes to sell themselves, even when the government has put some mandatory obligations.
Don explains how the obligations aren’t restrictions but opportunity to say something cigarette brands can never do. Don then sells the idea of ‘It’s toasted’ to the investors of Lucky Strike and how just these two words differentiate Lucky Strike from other cigarettes even if they all are made from similar ingredients.
6) Hershey - season 6, episode 13
A personal anecdote is definitely a good way to sell something, but episode 13 of season 6 of Mad Men, named In Care of, tells the viewers that there should be a limit to how far you go while explaining your personal story in a professional environment.
Don talks about a fabricated childhood experience and then comes up with an amazing one liner ‘Hershey’s- The currency of affection’. However, he loses the interest and the client when he starts explaining the truth about his upbringing.
Don brilliantly connects his truth and the value of a Hershey’s bar. He explains how that small chocolate bar carries a sentimental value while he was growing up in a whorehouse and explains a cathartic story which is shocking but highly inappropriate for an advertisement pitch.
7) Kodak Carousel - season 1, episode 13
Episode 13 of season 1, named ‘The Wheel’, presents viewers with one of the greatest and creative moments of how the advertising industry works. Don Draper explains how a photograph is not a mere memory, it’s a time machine that takes the user back to an experience they ache for and a nostalgia that they always want to cherish.
The presentation and the way Don explains his personal memories with Kodak’s new wheel technology of capturing photographs give viewers goosebumps and make them fall in love with the wit and intelligence of Don Draper. The three-minute-long pitch takes viewers on a ride full of memories, emotions, and moments humans are bound to long for, creating one of the most applauded moments of television history.
The above list has some of the best moments from Mad Men. Viewers are welcome to go through the list and choose an episode of their liking to recap the best pitches made in the show.
