All The Mad Men

“Mad Men,” a new weekly television series, opens in a loud, swanky restaurant. Reveling men and women are enjoying a night out on the town in 1960. A well-dressed man sitting alone, lit cigarette in hand, jots down some ideas on a pad and then starts to chat with a waiter about the pleasures of smoking.

We find out that our protagonist, Don Draper, is struggling to come up with an ad campaign for Lucky Strike cigarettes amid the first government reports that cigarettes can cause cancer. Draper later quips to an agency crony, “The question isn’t why people should smoke; it’s why they should smoke Lucky Strike.”

The 13-episode period piece, which debuted July 19 on cable network AMC, depicts Madison Avenue as a depraved, arrogant, sexist, racist boys’ club whose members spent more time drinking, smoking and chasing loose women than actually working. It also shows the anxiety that creative types endure when trying to come up with that elusive “big idea.” Surely promotions marketers can relate. True to life even today, the execs wine and dine clients, often catering to their every wish in order to keep the account.

Many of the same moral issues that crop up in fictional New York advertising agency Sterling Cooper remain relevant 47 years later. Marketers still struggle with how to promote goods that play on people’s vices. And it’s not only cigarettes that figure prominently in the show’s story lines; alcohol does as well. Product placement abounds in those categories and in others.

Jack Daniel’s whiskey is the lead sponsor of the series, which airs Thursday nights at 10 p.m. The brand is featured in three episodes of the hour-long drama as part of a branded entertainment deal brokered by Universal McCann. “To be honest with you, I probably would have put Jack Daniel’s in the show anyway,” says “Mad Men” creator/executive producer Matthew Weiner. “That really is the truth. Jack Daniel’s was a very easy integration to create for a certain world.”

Some real brands become Sterling Cooper accounts, such as Right Guard, introduced as the world’s first aerosol deodorant. But that was not a paid placement.

When done wrong, Weiner says product integration is “an insult to my intelligence.” He adds that AMC has been sensitive to his concerns that the show’s integrity must not be compromised by advertising.

“I’m in entertainment, not advertising,” he says. “The show I write is based on the presence of things like Jack Daniel’s and a big bottle of Clorox bleach. These kinds of things are not about advertising; they’re about providing a texture.”

Weiner is against blatant insertion, and would not make Jack Daniel’s a client of Sterling Cooper. In his mind the show’s principal, the dashing 30-something Draper, is a rye drinker<probably Canadian Club or Seagram’s Crown Royal. But it’s plausible that one of the older agency executives would favor Jack Daniel’s.

However, Weiner has no problem with the unobtrusive introductions that are planned for Jack Daniel’s. The brand’s entrance is set for Aug. 23<six episodes into the series<when a whiskey is ordered in a bar. In the second placement, a bottle is visible in the office of one of the agency execs. And in the third, a secretary informs her boss that he received a gift bottle.

“Of course, there are all these stipulations,” Weiner says. “I’m doing a period piece where people have consequences for their alcohol consumption. People drink in this show, they have sex afterward. They fight, they drive and they talk to their kids. They have two or three [drinks] in a sitting. As far as I know, it’s completely historically accurate. With all the bad behavior you have to be very careful how you represent drinking.”

Entwinement Questioned

Anti-alcohol advocacy organization Commercial Alert felt not enough care was taken. On June 20 the watchdog group filed a complaint with the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (Discus) contending that Jack Daniel’s sponsorship violates numerous provisions of the alcohol industry’s own voluntary marketing code. The code doesn’t specifically cover branded entertainment or product placement.

Commercial Alert was disturbed by a few clips of the pilot episode available on AMC’s Web site. It filed the complaint without actually viewing an entire episode.

Commercial Alert managing director Robert Weissman points out that the Discus code prohibits alcohol marketing in association with depictions of irresponsible drinking and intoxication, as well as overt sexual activity or sexually lewd images or language.

“Our complaint in this instance,” Weissman contends, “is not with the portrayal of heavy alcohol consumption, or even with the glorification of such heavy consumption; it is specific to industry sponsorship of and entwinement with such portrayals.”

Phil Lynch, vice president of corporate communications at Jack Daniel’s parent company Brown-Forman, bristles at the suggestion that the brand’s use in “Mad Men” crosses the line. “We believe the complaint has no merit. The context that Jack Daniel’s is used [on the show] is consistent with the code. Brown-Forman has its own code of marketing,” he adds, suggesting that the company’s guidelines go even further than Discus’. Hard liquor manufacturers aren’t banned from taking advantage of TV product placements. “It’s all self-regulation,” Lynch says, adding it’s a “myth” that liquor can’t be advertised on television.

In 1996 the liquor industry lifted a voluntary 48-year ban. The broadcast networks generally still won’t run such commercials, but cable networks like AMC will. According to the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth, $118 million was spent last year on TV spots by liquor brands. Jack Daniel’s commercials run on AMC in the 9 p.m.-to-midnight block. Brown-Forman also advertises its Southern Comfort brand on the network. “Mad Men” airs at 10 p.m.

Commercial Alert believes “all liquor should be eliminated from television.” Its mission is “to keep the commercial culture within its proper sphere... [promoting] the higher values of family, community...”

In any case, Discus wouldn’t consider the complaint until after the show’s debut. But Lynch says it’s a moot point since Jack Daniel’s first placement occurs when the series is well under way.