A Moving Moment in Advertising

Posted on September 11, 2009 | Permalink

By Lane Casteix

I have made no bones about my love of the AMC series Mad Men, which is a soap based on the golden years of Madison Avenue advertising agencies. They are now in the third season as a highly rated and award-winning offering but with fairly low viewership. It is on Sunday nights and I urge you to check it out.

In the first season there was a scene when Don Draper, the Sterling Cooper creative director gave a presentation to Kodak executives, pitching for their business to handle their new Carousel Slide Projector account. Don gives a very moving presentation, using the product and slides of his own family, that hits solidly on how to promote the new projector. It was effective advertising because it touched an emotional nerve. I don't know how accurate the actual events are portrayed here, but fiction or not it is worth watching and learning from. Advertising on a gut level like this moves products!