Maidenform- Clearasil

I told you a few post ago that soon enough they would be digging into Clearasil.

Peggy wants the two kids to be getting ready for a dance

Pete is stuck on Thanks Clearasil, he really just wants to feel included, like he could be a copy writer.

The New Girl

Do you like the ocean?

Seriously Bobbi Barret, do you realize what kind of trouble your about to unleash? Poor Don: seeing Rachel Menken (now Katz), car accident, having to rely on Peggy, bitched at by Betty, and in a sling- all in one night!

The only client they really talk about in this episode of Clearasil and all they really say is that Pete wants to bring new work to his father in-law and since Peggy was babysitting Bobbi she didn't get it done.

Give them another episode of two and they do a pretty cool commercial!

Three Sundays- American Airlines

In just a few weeks Don and Betty’s relationship seems to go from perfect to awful. While she’s yelling at Bobby for playing with the record player the first Sunday, she looks at Don to help her and he just continues reading his paper. Then she wants him to give him a spanking for breaking the hi-fi, but Don won’t do it because of his own father issues.

Well, let’s get on to the pitch and away from the struggling marriage!

Since the previous episode we’ve been aware that at some point Sterling Coo will be going after American Airlines, now onto the next episode and into April as it was, let the pitching begin.

On Palm Sunday, Duck tells Don that he wants Sterling Cooper to present American Airlines with several approaches, but Don wants his creative team to commit to one concept. They come up with what I feel was a great concept, that crash happened to somebody else: which brings us back to Don’s daddy issues or more accurately, his issues with his former life.

The meeting is moved ahead to Good Friday, everyone is ready, great food, great outfits, and of course great ideas. But right around the time the meeting is set start, Duck informs stunned Sterling Cooper staffers that his contact (Shell Connelly) at American was fired that morning.

The presentation must go on, but the agency is delivering "a stillborn baby."

I'm going to come back to this episode soon to discuss Don's daddy issues!

The Benefactor- Belle Jolie/ The Defenders

This is my favorite Harry episode. Harry pitches The Defenders to the rep from Belle Jolie that Sal previously flirted with (awkward moment in the hall way!)

"Top-twenty show. Prime time. For pennies on the dollar."

Sounds like a deal I'd take, but nope. The client declines -- abortion is too controversial.

Harry showed gusto and now he wants a raise and to be the head of a new television department. "All the other agencies have one," Harry says. Roger makes it happen, "You are now head of the television department, which consist solely of you"

Harry gets a raise and it proud to tell his pregnant wife that she doesn’t have to work anymore if she doesn’t want to.

The title of this episode ("The Benefactor") was the title of the controversial episode of The Defenders which Harry tries (unsuccessfully) to get the Belle Jolie cosmetics company to sponsor.

The episode originally aired on CBS on April 28, 1962. It was so controversial at the time that none of the regular sponsors for the series would advertise during its broadcast.

The Benefactor- Utz

“Utz is going to lose Jimmy and we’re going to lose Utz.” –Duck

Duck is full of good quotes the past few episodes.

Pitching to get a client is very important of course, but pitching to keep a client can often be much harder and much trickier.

After Jimmy got drunk during a commercial shoot and seriously insulted the owner of Utz wife, Don had to do damage control.

After a “talk” with Bobbi Barrett, Don knew what needed to be done. He needed Betty to be his better half. He would need her to appeal to Jimmy in a way that he simply couldn’t. Jimmy needed to feel like Betty was within his reach.

When Don and Bobbi are stuck in the hailstorm she kisses him and he says, "I don't want to do this," to which she replies, "Doesn't feel that way." You could easily change this to Jimmy saying I don’t want to do this, but in a different sense. He doesn’t want to apologize but he does want to continue getting the big bucks to eat chips and use someone else’s tuxedo for rehearsal at the Copa.

In the end Jimmy does apologize for so rudely pointing out that Mrs.Schilling is fat, but I think does so maybe took away a little piece of his dignity. Him and Bobbi keep telling everyone, this is what Jimmy does, this is who Jimmy is, but then he has to apologize for it so he can maintain his lifestyle. As the episodes go you can see Jimmy relying more on Bobbi and even Don.

Flight 1- Mostly Mohawk

"Someone should tell Draper to pull everything from Mohawk". -Duck

Other than shock from the secretaries, this was the first reaction when the SC office found out about crashing of American Airlines Flight 1.

If I didn't already know what was going to happen I'd guess Duck wanted out from Mohawk.

This makes sense because as Don so eloquently put it, people don't want to see a floating engine next to a Mohawk ad with their morning coffee.

Thanks to Duck's old pal from London we soon find out that American will be looking to make an agency change to give the public a better picture of them post crash.

So here we are- bye bye Mohawk and hopefully hello American

They told Mohawk that Sterling Cooper didn't need a big airline that they would make Mohawk their big airline and now here they are, kind of ironic that to get Mohawk SC had to false advertise.

Too bad they didn't have a crystal ball or Anna with her tarot cards (which comes later in the season) to tell them about the crashes that Mohawk would have in 1963, 1967, 1969, and 1972. Maybe they would have kept them around to help them rebuild THEIR image.

A real life Mohawk ad!

Food Fight!

The Trix rabbit, Count Chocula, The Cute Penguin on the kid cuisine box, and of course Chuck-E- Cheese. Those were my favorite foods as a kid for obvious reasons. They had cool cartoons, usually had prizes, and in the portions that I ate, were not all that good for me. What more would a young kid ask for?

The ad world has been told for years to be careful how they market to children but in the past year, the reigns have been pulled tight. The Better Business Bureau's Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative said it would enforce the same nutritional standards for all 17 of its voluntary members. The standards are becoming to tight that its predicted by Late 2013 one in three products now advertised to kids would be off the air, unless the recipes are drastically changed to have less soduim, saturated fat, and of course the devil  Sugar (seriously I read it in Skinny Bitch, Sugar is the Devil)! 

The new rules are meant to thwart a stronger proposal by the Obama administration that advertisers say would pretty much shut down kid-oriented ads for most foods.

This comes almost a year after a study conducted by the American Psychological Association. “Federal regulators should restrict television advertising aimed at children 8 and younger because research shows youngsters lack the skills to question a commercial's claims as anything but fact, the American Psychological Association said this past September. 

The association said extensive studies found that young children are unable to comprehend televised advertising messages and, as a result, is likely to consider commercials as "truthful, accurate and unbiased. This can lead to unhealthy eating habits as evidenced by today's youth obesity epidemic," the group said in a news release. The association said that advertisers spend more than $12 billion a year on messages aimed at the youth market, including children over 8. The average child -- no matter what age -- watches more than 40,000 television commercials a year, it added.”

Could this be the end of all my favorite food cartoons? I guess only time will tell.

Yes, that is Kiernan Shipka, AKA, Sally Draper, in a Trix Commercial, what a fitting picture for this post!

Would you like fries with your billboard?

Doesn't it usually work out that the original is always better than the copy cats? Well, when you take two great originals and incorporate cutting edge advertising techniques. you have a billboard that makes me want to hop a plane to Sweden.

McDonald’s recently launched an interactive video billboard campaign in Sweden that lets users play a digital version of the very first video game, Pong.

Winners receive free food at a nearby McDonald’s restaurant. Finally a video game with a prize other than your name as the high scorer!

According to Mashable, "The system’s designers wanted to make it as easy as possible to begin playing, requiring users to simply enter a URL in their mobile phone’s browser. As soon as the smartphone’s geolocation confirms the player is in the area, the game begins, with the player controlling the billboard’s Pong game with the smartphone’s touchscreen."

Do you think augmented reality is the next logical step in the marketing mix or just a fad that will be gone faster than you can say pogs?

Business Blogging Tips

The most random things have been making me think of Mad Men lately. Today I was trying to come up with topic of discussion for the company LinkedIn and all I could think of was how I wish SCDP had a blog.

People tend to flock to Mashable and Hubspot when they are trying to gather information on news in the Marketing industry and I think if blogging had existed in the 60's Madison Avenue we would be like a moth to their proverbially flame. 

So enjoy my tips for successful business blogging, use them well, if you have any tips that you tend to follow leave them as a comment!

First of all, make sure that your blog is easy to find, and that your readers are able to easily comment and share posts with others. If no one can find your blog the following tips won’t matter!

Don’t use your blog as a press center. 

Using a recent press release in place of a new blog post may seem like a simple solution to saving some time but people who read blogs regularly are looking for a more casual voice. A blog is a good place to talk to your customers, not at them. A good idea for a business blog is to share details of the day-to-day work life and inner workings of your company. Tips and list are also often highly viewed post.

Blog Regularly.

If you think finding time to blog is going to be a problem, brain storm blog ideas for the whole month or year during a set time with co-workers. One of the reasons many blogs don’t get high views is because they post everyday for a week and then not again for a year (well not always exactly that way, but you get the idea!). Readers want current content.

Have low expectations.

Many companies think a blog will give them instant SEO and hundreds of readers daily. Not to discourage you, but this is not often the case. Mashable suggest that you give your blog at least a year of regularly putting out quality, original content before you start having faithful followers. 

(Blogger in training)

Is Social Media ruining your company’s productivity? If not, there’s a good chance in the future it will.

How many times during the work day do you check your social media presence? Because people don’t disconnect from an online chat quickly enough, get sidetracked by full email inboxes, and the worst distraction of all: Facebook, companies are hemorrhaging money. People are falling into the black hole I lovingly refer to as the Facebook Coma.

According to a recent survey by harmon.ie, the overload of new pictures, relationship statuses and of course the newsfeeds of all 2,000 of our closest friends is costing an average of $10,375 in productivity each year(per employee).

Between drinking, smoking, and flirting with secretaries- would there even be time in Don's day to get paid to tweet?

In a recent blog post titled “The Twitter Trap,” Bill Keller, the executive editor of The New York Times, writes about the challenges of staying focused. “The most obvious drawback of social media is that they are aggressive distractions.”

Do you think your one of the average workers who is basically paid thousands of dollars to keep up-to-date on your social networks?

In the 90’s being able to constantly monitor our friends and family via the World Wide Web seemed like the plot to a sci-fi movie, but today the range of content individuals have access to could literally bury us alive.

According to a recent blog post from Cisco Systems, we’re barely at the tip of this revolutionary iceberg. “In 2010, there were 12.5 billion devices connected to the Internet. Looking to the future, Cisco predicts there will be 25 billion devices connected to the Internet by 2015, and 50 billion by 2020. Both the types of information we share will dramatically increase, and the number of people from whom we can receive.”

Mashable predicts that the social networks and web companies that remember Cisco’s predictions will stand the best chance of success in the future. Well, to paraphrase Kate Winslet, “I’ll never let go of my Facebook, Twitter, FourSquare, or Blogger accounts Jack!”

What do you think of the recent upgrades to the most popular social media sites? (Twitter searching by pictures, Facebooks new pages) Is there a social networking platform that you don’t think you could live without?

Sorry for the delay

I haven't posted in a while, as you can all see. But with good reason: I was working full time while still holding down part time internships, writing freelance, getting into Grad School, babysitting, and finishing up my final semester as an undergrad!

I know, excuses excuses, but I've finally settled into a rhythm that will allow me to get back into blogging. Just in time too because there’s so much Mad news I'd like to share with you.

Unfortunately season 5 is being delayed until March of 2012. Of course waiting an extra 8ish months than we should have to is awful, but with all the cancellations happening lately I'm at least glad to have a wait.

The show’s creator Mathew Weiner said "Don was not good on his own. That's part of why he proposed to Megan." I don't know about anyone else but I'm hoping this will lead to a Betty/Don reunion. If January Jones pregnancy is worked into the show it could help in either direction. If she is pregnant with Henry's baby will it help her realize what a mistake she made? Or it could bring them together.

But I'm leaning more towards a secret affair between engaged Don and married Betty (talk about irony!) which will lead to Draper baby #4.

But since the season has been postponed so far maybe January's pregnancy won't even be a factor. The actress (who hasn't had any strange cravings as of yet might I add) is due in the fall so maybe we won't get to see as much of her pregnancy as we would have.

What do you think of the potential for drama the late start date and the pregnancy create?

Indian Summer- Relaxisyzer

I can't belive I never posted about this pitch! I think it bothers me a little the way all of the men treated Peggy in this one. I can understand having women being hired to work on female products, but this wasn't a girl thing, it was a fat thing.

Peggy tries out the product and realizes that the best part of it isn't weight loss, it's "stimulation". Peggy begins this season much like all of the other girls, seeming to want to find a good man and be married and as the season goes by she gets more successful and more full figured, to the unknowning audience she's gaining her freshman 15, just settling in to a new routine, putting on a few pounds.

This product came at a great point in the season because Peggy is realizing she doesn't need a man to be provided for, and now she doesn't need a man to have sexual pleasure.

This pitch isn't about the product, it's about the uprising of feminism in the US. The Relaxisyzer (am I even spelling this right?) and Peggy Olsen would have given woman of the time hope that life could go on with or without a man!

Favorite Episode

My season 4 dvd is schedualed to come via UPS today and it got me thinking about my favorite episodes of Mad Men. I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours! So comment away :o)

Why do they keep changing Bobby Draper?

In season 1 the Bobby didn't really do anything, which made sense because I think he was only 4.

 In the second season it jumps 2 years so now that Bobby is 6 they needed an older actor because he is older. The first Bobby might not have had the skill level that they needed for the season 2 story lines. I honestly can't see Bobby 1 breaking the bed or burning himself.

As for in season 3, I don't know why they would have needed a different Bobby because just like in season 2, he doesn't really matter much. He has a few scenes and the season finale is certainly a great acting job by Bobby number 3. But all in all my opinion is that they got Bobby 3 because I think he looks like he could actually be Don's son or Sally's brother!

And although they kept the same actor for season 4, we barely see him! I'm hoping that season 5 shows more of this young actors skills.

Don't forget to follow me and be entered to win some great stuff!

Contest!

Hey everyone,

Since I love all of my followers I thought I would reward you for being faithful to me!

On March 31st I am going to write everyone's name down who is a follower and pull one out of a hat and then send you a Mad Men inspired gift basket!

So, for those of you who read my post but aren't my follower, please follow me for your chance to win some rocking swag- just for doing something you already do!

For Those Who Think Young-Mohawk Airlines & Valentines Day

Mohawk Airlines- All Paul has is Indian puns, which Don wants to stay away from. Peggy wrote copy for Dale and they want to show the world a nice calm ride, “wherever Mohawk takes us, or you’ll love getting there”. But Don feels that air travel makes people think about a fantastical people, air travel as a fairytale is how I felt he was talking.

Air travel is too expensive for your wife, so they can put the stew in a short skirt; make sure you can see the hint of her thigh. Ironic isn’t it that eventually the idea for the final campaign comes from Sally?

It’s Valentine’s Day and everyone is pitching a happy reality to someone. This episode makes me think of something Don said in the first episode, “What you call love was invented by guys like me to sell nylons”. That line would have been great in this episode because although it’s the day of love, no one actually seems happy.

Don takes Betty out for a nice evening of hotel life, but for lack of a better word, can’t get it up. Betty pitches to Francine that her and Don has such a wonderful night. Betty pitches to her old friend how happy she is, her old friend acts like she’s on a date even though she’s a party girl.

Peggy pitches to her family that she’s happy and successful, she is, but everyone was making fat jokes, and treating her like she’s still a secretary.  Joan pitches to Roger that she’s happy with the man he joking calls the Jewish Doctor.

Trudy pitches to Pete that she’s okay with Jennifer Crane being pregnant so quickly after trying even though she and he have been trying.

Isn’t it just like the people of this country to be sad and to lie on the day of the year specifically set aside to show each other how much we love each other?

What are your plans for this Valentine’s Day? Whatever they may be, please, enjoy yourself! Don’t pitch a good time, have one!

The Care and Keeping of Customers

In any business (from SCDP to amazon.com), one of the most important things to remember is the customer comes first. In a standard business when the customer has an issue, they either tell you to your face, leave a voice mail or perhaps fill out a comment card.


But in the ever evolving world of E-commerce, the tools at the consumer’s disposal are a little different. No face to face, no talking at all really. Email and commenting are the way of the future: so what’s the best way to regulate and respond to these in a timely manner?


With the help of HootSuite a company or a person can enter their twitter, facebook, 4square, etc. and monitor what people are saying about it. HootSuite allows you to manage multiple social identities and accounts, receive optional background notifications for updates, and create custom views for tags and searches.


Consumers expect you to prove your value to them before they buy your product. You can do this by creating focused, interesting, useful content that you know will be important to the people involved with your target market. But why spend time creating great content if you aren’t going to spend time pruning your customers response?


No matter what you choose, connecting to your customers is key. It doesn’t matter how you respond to them, as long as you do. Make sure they are heard by you, or else they won’t want to be heard by you, thus you lose them as a customer.

How do you think Don and the gang would deal with the new ways of doing business? I can only imagine Drapers foursquare. Checked in at home, at Midges, at Bobby Barrrets, at the Bar. Don Draper would deffinatly be the major of at least 10 bars and a few Hilton's. Isn't it great to imagine how these characters we've come to love would function in modern society?

The Wheel- Kodak

Sorry for the delay in post my loyal followers(if there are any of you!), but my poor laptop was with the Geek Squad for 13 days. You must be thinking that I could get on the internet from anywhere, and thats true but this post is very important to me. It was actually the first post I ever wrote. This episode of Mad Men was what gave me the inspiration to start this blog. So alas, saved on my 2008 HP Pavilion was the post for this episode.

Here goes nothing!

Don used nostalgia to empathize with the Kodak people(and with his fellow employees). Everyone has a story and he told his. He showed pictures of him and Betty dating, their wedding, Betty pregnant, Sally and Bobby as babies, and then playing. He pulled at everyone’s heart strings. By the end of the meeting Harry is crying and everyone else is speechless. Kodak calls from the lobby. And for those of us who would like to relive Don Draper at what I consider the height of his pitching in season 1, here you go: Kodak Carousel http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWyLaXCV2_s

Swimmingly

Don's recent excursion into the world of fitness has really got me thinking. He used his trips to the Athletic club to decompress, and then he would go home and write "in his diary like a little girl". I feel akin to Don because I myself am an avid swimmer.

It’s a well known joke in my family that I could swim before I could walk. I went to swim lessons when I was 6, but I was in the group with the 12+ year olds. I feel more myself when I’m in the water than anywhere else I’ve ever been.

At the beginning of season 4 it was obvious that Don was going through a hard time, his family troubles and all.

Free stroke suites Don because one of his most significant characteristics is that he chooses to do whatever he wants. With free-style you’re basically free to do anything! A trick to this technique is to almost dive into the water with each arm stroke, it reduces resistance in the water and could be that added boost to get your lap time down.

My stroke of choice was backstroke. Free and back are often referred to as the long-axis strokes, because you are rotating on the long-axis of your body while swimming.

Backstroke starts in the water so you don’t have to worry about breathing or your goggles falling off during the initial dive in. The disadvantage is you can’t see we’re your going, therefore I feel that if Don were to change up his swimming regimen, back would work well for him. He may do whatever he wants, but he never really knows where he’s going.