The Blog on Branding

Reviving Retro: Product Placement on Mad Men

Product placement on AMC’s hit series, Mad Men is not done in the name of exposure, at least not blatantly. But, in most cases, the exposure certainly doesn’t hurt.

The products are concurrent with the era of the show (the early ’60s). This combination of atmospheric prop and product placement seems to work to the advantage of set designer, consumer and brand… at least most of the time.

According to New York Magazine’s recent article titled ‘The Hidden Genius of Mad Men Product Placement’, everything is kosher until the products are inhibited by their dated style. Otherwise, the system works.

Classic products like Coca-Cola, Heineken and Utz potato chips get classier with every episode, especially if someone as smooth as Don Draper, the main character on the show, is partaking. It’s partly nostalgia that grabs us, the urge to gulp that beer and crunch those chips and reinvent the good old days.

Does some of the product placement on the show date the product? Certainly. But is that a bad thing?

“Does some of the product placement on the show date the product?”

People fall in love with their products, even if they do become dated.

How many times has my mother searched for “White Shoulders” at Neimans when it can be bought at your nearest Walgreens? Why am I always sad to find another independent storefront shut down when I return to my hometown during the holidays? Granted, I’d never stock up on conical Maidenform bras or cake on the Coty face powder, but give me a gimlet made with Smirnoff that I can drink while lounging on my vintage olive-coloured fabric couch while wearing a beaded cardi anyday.

“Dated” can be retro, and retro, it seems, has always been in style. On the other hand, if the brand is strong, it’s a win-win.

The fear lies in the idea that placing a product on a show like Mad Men automatically dates the product. Most cases are all for the technique, pleading “retro phenomenon” and “classic cool.” It’s when the products don’t or can’t translate to the times we live in that this type of product placement becomes detrimental.

And yet, if a product is that dated, it’s not losing much revenue anyway. There’s a reason why cases of White Shoulders stack up behind plastic sliding doors in drugstores rather than grace the glass counter tops of chic department stores.

“Television is one of the largest mediums from which to advertise…”

The benefits of product placement on television outweigh the costs. Television is by far one of the largest and most widespread mediums from which to advertise, and when the context is as aesthetically appealing and entertaining as this series is, it’s an unarguable format for efficient and effective advertising.

The image of Don Draper sipping soulfully but manfully on his Heineken slides down as smooth as vanilla ice cream with apple pie on the side. What product placement on Mad Men does for us as viewers and consumers is bring the products back to life and instill them with humanity and, well…. just plain old goodness.

There is no black leather—or at least there hasn’t been from what I’ve seen—on the show. There is, instead, chiffon, ermine, and taffeta. There is no loud, obnoxious music pulsating through our stereo sound speakers when we sit down for a show. Instead, there is cool jazz, Blossom Dearie, Peggy Lee. Jimmy Durante. There is drama, and a tiny sliver of seediness; but on the whole, everything is set up charmingly, from Joan’s bright, tight-fitting dresses to Betty Draper’s perfectly matched clutch and pair of heels.

The relevant products become more sought-after for their nostalgic qualities, made cool again by the cool cats of a powerful Madison Avenue ad agency in the ’60s. The ones that don’t—well—advertising is a cutthroat business. That, and some things just shouldn’t be repeated, like the beer shampoo that promised to make your hair shiny in the seventies.

The least Mad Men can do is stay true to its era and spark our memories so that instead of choosing a six pack of Diet Pepsi in the supermarket, we go for the Coke in the glass bottles. Just this once. To feel like we’re getting the real thing. That’s what it’s about, right?

Seems like we get further and further away from what is essential with every fusion of watermelon and vanilla mixed with a splash of hot sauce and a confit of glazed duck fat and raspberry ‘air’ garnish. Where have all the basics gone? How’s about a good old-fashioned cheeseburger with a pickle on the side and a chocolate malted?

Let’s wear some worn-in 501’s today, shall we? Let’s stick to red lipstick, not mocha frost or sierra dune. Let’s keep it simple.

‘Cause when it comes right down to it, the brand that can withstand is the one that we all eventually end up returning to. Classic is always in.

“Let’s stick to red lipstick.”

By Kate Gross