I’ve been pining over AMC’s hit show Mad Men lately. I hadn’t tuned in until I was home on a rainy day and happened to see that season two episodes were available on Comcast’s OnDemand for free, so I decided to take a watch. I’m hooked.
Mad Men is a play on words…Ad Men, which is the name given to advertising executives in the 60’s and the show follows those working for an ad firm in New York City (Sterling Cooper) and the adventures and happenings of their lives away from the office. It’s a hit show and I’m sold.
This past Sunday, I was eagerly awaiting the season three premiere and happened upon the Mad Men Web site on http://www.amctv.com/. There were some short behind-the-scenes videos and I decided to watch a few. Like all video promos online, there’s a 10 to 15 second ad that you must sit through before watching the video clip you’ve selected.
The video clip was sponsored by Clorox. I would take a guess and venture to say that Clorox has traditionally advertised to women, who make up a large majority of their target audience. Nothing sexist about it, just saying that traditionally, women have done the laundry. The ad, posted below, made me question, are companies using Web advertising differently than they do TV or print?
After watching the ad, my first reaction was that it’s catchy but my second reaction was to think that it’s a bit risky. First, as a member of Mad Men’s target audience (not Clorox’s) I identified with the ad, mostly because it mimics the morals of the show. Second, I wondered why a traditionally family-focused brand (Clorox) would want to associate itself with successfully assisting men in committing adultery, even if it’s all in fun.
Here’s the deal, in my opinion: Clorox knows who is visiting the Mad Men site on http://www.amctv.com/ (male fans of the show) and thought it okay to be a bit risky with their brand reputation given the audience. Would they have run it on TV? I’m not so sure. Will it help Clorox sell more bleach? Stupid or smart? you decide.
About the Author
Brooks A. Brown is the founder and principal of Shout Out LLC, a Knoxville, Tennessee-based marketing, public relations, and communications firm serving clients throughout the nation.
