Monday, August 17, 2009

BMW and Mad Men

I have blogged about Mad Men before... great show on AMC about a 1960's Madison Avenue Advertising firm. The show is not only a portrait of 60's culture, but also an interesting lens into the world of advertising.

Oddly enough, I was also reading the recent issue of Vanity Fair with Farah Fawcett on the cover. It has a pretty extensive article about the show and a photo shoot with John Hamm (Don Draper) and January Jones (Betty Draper).

But what really hit me was the huge fold out advertisment for BMW that is promoting the North American debute of their new diesel engine. You can see the ad and read a bit more about the deal between the companies here. You can see one of the ads here.

Is this a good call or a bad call for BMW?

I suppose that would depend on how much they paid for the rights to sponsor the show... but my guess is that this really isn't going to be a game changer for BMW.

My guess is that people purchase BMW's because they are exactly what they have marketed themselves as for the last decade or so: "The Ultimate Driving Machine".

People don't buy BMW's because they are the "Ultimate Green Driving Machine".

And for this reason, I think they might have missed the boat this one. Plus, I also think that while Mad Men may appear to be a "slick" show about sophisticated men... it's not.

Mad Men is as much about women, and their place in the changing society of the 1960's as it is the men. And the men.. well they are all starting to flounder at what I can only imagine is the beginning of the end for the male dominated society of the day. Roger Sterling, the silver haired head of Sterling Cooper is reeling from a divorce, Don Draper is cracking trying to pull himself together after cracking at the seams in Season 2 and Pete Campbell is going to have to learn to play nice or he's out.

Watch the show and let me know what you think. Comments are always welcome.

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