I’ll admit it. I’m a rabid fan of AMC’s Mad Men and Sunday is the season premiere!! That gets a full on wag of the tail from me, for sure! Weekends are my favorite time, since all the creative types scurry off and go to their own hip and trendy places. Me, I stay here. I’ve got my run of the place and that’s sweet. That means I can eat all the dog treats I want, can sleep on any couch in the place (which usually gets me in trouble), pass gas without being judged, watch whatever I want on TV and bark as much as I want if there happens to be lots of activity at the nearby fire station. Excellent!!

Let’s talk about Mad Men. Mad Men Mania consumes many, but especially us advertising types. And it’s funny to see and think about how the world of advertising has changed so much over the course of the last 40 years or so.

An ad like the one above, which was the brainchild of the folks Young & Rubicam, ran in 1964 as part of a campaign for Arrow shirts. The ad was pretty risqué, especially for the times, and the headline was “Can a Humble Cotton Shirt Save This Marriage?” In fact, it was so risqué that the New York Times ran a short article about it, explaining that apparel ads typically focused on a romantic angle and explaining that this was just another take on that. That a fresh, crisp, stylish shirt could in fact save a marriage, thus perpetuating the happily ever after image that was so important for the times.

Funny to think about now. A newspaper explaining to its readership the logic behind running an ad campaign – it seems almost prehistoric. Today shock value is actually factored into a lot of today’s ad campaigns and brands like to take advantage of the buzz that that generates. Positive and negative.

What about you? Are you a Mad Men fan? If so, tune in with me this Sunday night and we’ll talk about it on Monday. But only if you bring me a dog treat.