Mad Men Ads

Being a graphic designer I really enjoy the ad side that is portrayed in the show Mad Men.

Before Diet Pepsi came out it was actually called Patio. It was released in 1963 in order to compete with the first diet soda released called Diet Rite Cola and also catered to the women market who at that time started watching their weight and became more health conscious. I am not sure why they named it Patio as it was a ridiculous name which never took off so was renamed Diet Pepsi making it more recognizable to Pepsi drinkers.

This next ad for Belle Jolie lip stick was a brand new avenue on how to market makeup for women. Instead of showing all the different colours available like was always done before, you have one colour featured with the slogan “Mark Your Man”. In my opinion it makes more sense in grabbing people’s attention since no woman wants to wear the same colour as others and have themselves seen the same as every other woman. This ad was a way to speak to each woman individually as opposed to the masses.

During the time that Mad Men takes place in the 1960’s, companies were still allowed to advertise cigarettes, unlike today, but they were restricted to being able to advertise the non-existent health benefits smoking had unlike before. Lucky Strike cigarettes had to come up with another way to draw attention to their brand without saying they were beneficial for you health. On the show, Don asked what the process was for making their product and when it came to the point where the client explained the tobacco was toasted, that was their answer. Even tho all tobacco was toasted no other company up until that point decided to use it as a selling feature. Even with all the restrictions there is on selling cigarettes today, including what is shown on the packaging, I have noticed the same feature used on some cigarettes like Peter Jackson. They have used advertising on their packages saying their tobacco is sun-dried. However, in the older ads Lucky Strike also used the ploy that if you were trying to lose weight then to reach for a lucky instead of over-indulging or eating sweets. Who knows… maybe that is why we get the idea that when we try to quit smoking we eat more.

Popsicles were accidentally invented in 1905 but was patented and named Popsicle in 1924 by Frank Epperson. They were always made using 2 sticks and could always be broken into 2 and shared. Even tho this was usually always the way popsicles were eaten, it wasn’t before this ad that it became the thing to do and a ritual among households that is still known and practiced today; even by me.

The Kodak Carousel Slide Projector was released in 1963 and was more effective than the straight-tray, horizontal-feed systems for three reasons; slides could not spill out if dropped, the chances of it jamming was reduced and most importantly you could display automated shows without having to stop and manually reset the slide tray between showings. In my opinion the name Carousel fits because of the last reason specifically. The wheel slide stray could go round and round without having to reset at all, making for continuous fun until you were ready to pack it up.