"Mad Men" is smokin'
Everyone's getting on the "Mad Men" bandwagon these days. (We were on from the beginning as this lengthy explication and this even lengthier chat-up prove). After recent cover stories in Emmy and Entertainment Weekly magazines and getting a scad of nominations in the Television Critics Association's TCA Awards, comes this New York Times article about the gathering hoopla surrounding the show as it prepares to return July 27 (the first season will be released on DVD next Tuesday).
And I'm OK with this, I think. But shows can become the victim of their own success and that self-satisfaction can wind up like an irritant onscreen (think "Desperate Housewives," "Grey's Anatomy," "My Name is Earl" and "Scrubs," to name a few), and though creator Matthew Weiner is too smart to let that happen, it's something that can take you out of the proceedings, something that can make a great show merely good and a good show unwatchable.
Some of the bandwagoning, per the Times:
* An advertising supplement in Advertising Age, art-directed to look the way the magazine did in 1960, with Sterling Cooper's Don Draper ruminating on the art of making people buy stuff they don't need.
* Zippo lighters with the "Mad Men" logo (which is also the packaging for the DVD set).
* "Mad Men"-themed window displays in Bloomingdale's.
* A CD of songs from the show (inevitable, these days, but shouldn't they release it on vinyl?) and a 2009 calendar with stills from the series.
All well and good, but they're missing some good bets. To wit:
* Marlboro cigarettes ads featuring Don Draper's charismatic visage puffing away, with the copy reading: "Who cares if they'll kill you? We want you to smoke cigarettes!"
* Chivas Regal Scotch ads with the legend: "Scotch. The original Rohypnol."
* Victoria's Secret hawking big, fat padded bras, "For the woman whose figure is fuller than her emancipation!"
* Retro merchandise such as fedoras, electric typewriters and the Kodak Carousel slide projector, with marketing promising, "Only a Mad Man would want this stuff!"
3 Comments
About this blog
David Kronke was appointed Mayor of Television after a bloodless coup in 2000. Since then, he has improved infrastructure, championed greater educational opportunities and fought for reforms that have utterly erased corruption and incompetence from the television industry. Since Mr. Kronke has ascended to power, Television is a far better place.
Yes, you were first. I'm freaking about all the attention too, because there are just so many ways this show could go all "Peyton Place."
ZIPPO The greatest windproof designed lighter I have ever owned in my entire lifetime. Forget about your throw away lighters that work a couple of times then die on you. I was given this as a present from my brother in law and it still works great to this day some cough cough years on. The lighter is designed to give the user a flame in almost any condition. It is fueled by petrol which is available in small tins from most good tobacconists.
The blog is on mad men. If Chivas Regal is the choice of mad men then they are really know the taste. Chivas Regal is one of the top ten Scotch whisky brand . Chivas Regal is the ultimate in smooth and balanced Scotch with astonishingly rounded finish and it goes well with food and cigar.