Sterling Cooper: The Ad Agency of its Times
Although the AMC drama Mad Men is an intense character study of complex individuals adapting to a rapidly changing period in history, the series also serves as a microcosm of the era and the struggles of society as a whole to forge a new identity. While Don Draper, the main protagonist of Mad Men, continually attempts to hide his past and fill the emptiness deep inside with superficial relationships and meaningless sexual encounters, his endeavors as creative director of advertising agency Sterling Cooper display an astute ability to put his finger on the pulse of the 1960s in ways that he can’t when it comes to his own life. Draper’s “pitches” to his clients thus often cut deeper and offer an accurate reflection of the contrasting nature of the time period.
The first season of Mad Men takes place in 1960 and in the pilot episode Draper is left with the task of designing a new ad campaign for Lucky Strikes. The previous decade is often seen as a period of prosperity and innocence for Americans despite the fact that the nation was on the verge of eruption. Although not aware of the changes ahead, society still felt the uncertainty of the moment. Draper, in turn, comes up with a simple and comforting slogan of “It’s toasted” for Lucky Strikes. His subsequent explanation for the campaign, as well as the advertising industry at large, reflects how Americans were able to live in the 1950s while ignoring the growing friction within the country.
“Advertising is based on one thing: happiness,” he begins. “And you know what happiness is? Happiness is the smell of a new car. It’s freedom from fear. It’s a billboard on the side of the road that screams with reassurance that whatever you’re doing is OK. You are OK.”
Women, meanwhile, were at a crossroads in 1960—while the sexist notion that “a woman’s place is in the home” was still prevalent, a number of females found themselves in the work place and rising above the position of mere secretary. Although women’s rights were still a relatively long way off, Don Draper and the rest of Sterling Cooper still struggled with how to appeal to a rapidly changing demographic.
Draper, for instance, believed that women should be the target for Right Guard deodorant because they would most likely be the ones to purchase the product for the men in their lives. He continuously asks the question “What do women want?” while developing the campaign and at one point comments, “You think they want a cowboy. He’s quiet and strong. He always brings the cattle home safe. But they want something else. Inside some mysterious wish that we’re ignoring.”
The enigma that is known as the American woman comes into play later on Mad Men when Sterling Cooper is assigned the task of creating new strategies for both Playtex and Belle Jolie lipstick. One of their pitches alludes to women having two sides—one sophisticated and one sexual in nature—while the other argues that a woman is individually unique.
“Jacqueline Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe: women have feelings about these women because men do,” Draper tells Playtex. “Because we want both, they want to be both. It’s about how they want to be seen by us, their husbands, their boyfriends, their friends’ husbands.”
The Belle Jolie campaign, meanwhile, centers on uniqueness rather than shared desire. “Every woman wants choices but in the end none wants to be one of a hundred in a box. She’s unique. She makes the choices and she’s chosen him. She wants to tell the world, ‘He’s mine, he belongs to me not you.’ She marks her man with her lips. He is her possession. You’ve given every girl who wears your lipstick the gift of total ownership.”
The changes within society during the 1960s extended further than just women, however, and Don Draper was not above pointing that out to clients in often blunt terms. “The unpleasant truth is you don’t have anything,” he explains to a New York department store owner during season one. “Your customers cannot be depended on anymore. Their lives have changed. They’re prosperous. Over the years they’ve developed new tastes. They’re like your daughter. Educated. Sophisticated. They know full well what they deserve and they’re willing to pay for it.”
Then there was the growing youth movement in the country. When faced with the prospect that young people do not drink coffee, Draper was smart enough to turn the campaign for Martinson Coffee over to a pair of twentysomethings to design.
“There have been a million ways the folks on this avenue have tried to tell our generation what to do, except that we don’t want to be told what to do,” they in turn inform the client. “That’s over. We want to find things for ourselves. We want to feel. Martinson is a great coffee. It’s delicious and it’s hot and it’s brown. That’s all you need to say. We don’t need more than that.”
In 1962, an American Airlines flight from New York to Los Angeles crashed shortly after takeoff, killing all of the passengers and crew onboard. When word leaked that the airline might be looking for a new advertising firm because of the subsequent damage to their image, Draper latches onto the idea that not only worked as a new strategy for AA but summed up the optimism of the early 1960s despite the uncertainty of the times.
“American Airlines is not about the past anymore than America is,” he explains. “Ask not about Cuba, ask not about the bomb, we’re going to the Moon. There is no such thing as American history, only a frontier.”
The role that the United States played in World War II, as well as the leadership it demonstrated in the aftermath, reinvented the country as a true super power in world politics. That military might obviously extended to the economic as American culture and products quickly began to invade other nations—the business of America was now a world wide business. The planet was becoming Americanized and Don Draper realized this when he designed a new campaign for hotel industry giant Conrad Hilton.
“Rome, Tehran, Tokyo are magnificent destinations,” Draper tells Hilton. “And that’s really been the focus of almost every campaign you’ve had until now. How to lure the American traveler abroad. What more do we need than a picture of Athens to get our hearts racing? And yet the average American experiences a level of luxury that belongs only to kings in most of the world. We’re not chauvinists, we just have expectations. Well, now there’s one word that promises the thrill of international travel with the comfort of home. Hilton. ‘How do you say ice water in Italian? Hilton.’ ‘How do you say fresh towels in Farsi? Hilton.’ ‘How do you say hamburger in Japanese? Hilton.’ Hilton—it’s the same in every language.”
The 1960s were a turbulent period in the nation’s history and Mad Men is a unique television drama that not only entertains but bears witness to the changes of that bygone era. Through the characters of Don Draper, Peter Campbell, Peggy Olson and a slew of others, modern society takes shape before viewer’s eyes as the series moves along. The decade, however, is also reflected in the advertising campaigns of Sterling Cooper, and the various sales pitches and creative brainstorming sessions portrayed on the show likewise compliment the scope of Mad Men—in affect making the firm an ad agency for its times.
Anthony Letizia (August 27, 2010)
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