Don Draper's Carousel


"Technology is a glittering lure, but there is the rare occasion when the public can be engaged on a level beyond flash. If they have a sentimental bond with the product. My first job I was in-house at a fur company. This old pro copy writer. A Greek named Teddy. And Teddy told me the most important idea in advertising is "new." It creates an itch. You simply put your product in there as a kind of calamine lotion. But he also talked about a deeper bond to a product. Nostalgia. It's delicate but potent." - Don Draper

For the past dozen years or so, I've been working on all things digital because it is incredible. It is the future, and those of us to be lucky enough to have realized that fact get to shape it a bit. The internet is, for all intents and purposes, changing almost every aspect of our lives. I'm fascinated by it. I'm obsessed by it. I'm overwhelmed by it.

But I love television.

Yes, I love TV. Always have and always will. There is something wonderful about sitting back, disengaging, and becoming a true couch potato every once in a while. Being entertained is a privilege, isn't it? Sure, I love cool, interactive and fun digitally integrated entertainment. But sometimes, it is just fun to let go and drift off into TV-land.

Amongst other things over the past year, I've watched Lost, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (gone, but not forgotten), The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, Battlestar Galactica, and a ton of Fox News (the best comedy on television).

And then there's Mad Men.

Matthew Weiner's Mad Men is fantastic. Don Draper's character is legendary, and the show is only a year old.

The attention to detail is incredible, and the characters are all iconic. The show has sparked interest and debate across the ad industry and beyond. Thanks to Weiner's deft touch, honed by his work on The Sopranos and his own, ahem, interesting childhood and current situation vis-a-vis his family, we're privy to a show that feels so genuine and honest you can't help but identify with what happens on screen.

The last episode of season one was fantastic, and as AdRants put it, it provided a true Kodak moment.


The transcript and all the photos of Don Draper's Presentation for Kodak are on AMC's Mad Men blog. If you're looking for great background into the show as well as opposing viewpoints from advertising luminaries like Jerry Della Femina and George Lois, The NYTimes Magazine's feature about Weiner and the show "‘Mad Men’ Has Its Moment" is certainly worth a read.

I guess what I'm saying is that while it can be fun to update your Facebook profile, Twitter all your recent fast food purchases, and go online to boost your interactive balloon all over the internet for Orange, sometimes it is more fun to sit back, relax, and soak it in.

If this were a pitch, I imagine that Don would say that the internet wants to be all about the flash, but TV has the power of nostalgia. Then, he'd have a scotch.

What do you think?

What would Don Draper do?