Mad Men's advertising campaigns are more postmodern than modern

This connects with our recent work on the Cadbury's Gorilla TV advert and Sony's bouncy balls advert for it Bravia TV. Mad Men is a postmodern programme which is set in a late modern period. However its advertising pitches represent early postmodern advertising even though they are not as abstract as Cadbury's and Sony's! As excellent as Mad Men's attention to detail is it still discloses its origins as being produced in OUR TIME. Each of these texts were produced between 2005-7.

It's a postmodern trait that adverts should emotionally connect audiences with brands. The products are less important than the emotional connection forged between the user and the brand. Old style, late modernist adverting, which is still with us, tries to sell the product rationally and pumps away at why we need the product and how it is "good value" and is better than rival brands, etc.. Such adverts leave no room for audiences to interpret, engage and emotionally connect with the brand. The classic "Kodak Carousel" scene from Mad Men's last episode from series 1 is all about emotion; in this instance it is the post modern attachment to "nostalgia" and our emotional attachment to photographs that makes Don Draper's presentation so effective.

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Russo Revelation on Mad Men Vol 1.7

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