For all the hype, influence on the fashion industry, and magazine spreads, Mad Men is not the ratings draw you might've been led to believe.
In fact, it "continues to shed its audience at an alarming rate," intones Michael Starr. While the second season premiered on July 27 with 2.1 million viewers, last Sunday's episode averaged just 1.1 million (and a season low of 514k in the 18-49 demo).
None of this should be terribly surprising if you've been paying attention to the hype-vs-ratings measurements of late. CONTINUED »
Handsome Mad Men actor Jon Hamm recently sat down with The Advocate's Brandon Voss for a little homo heart-to-heart.
In addition to discussing the requisite "man crushes" - MM writer Matt Weiner and costar John Slattery - Hamm talks advertising, his fictional character Don's forte:
BV: How would you create a Mad Men ad campaign geared specifically to the gay community?
JH: Well, it’s a very high-drama show, and it’s very stylish. Three things that the gay community responds to are attitude, sexiness, and style. We’re a prime property for a big gay following—I love it.
BV: We’re an easy sell, Jon — just show us some skin.
JH: [Laughs] I don’t know about that. I don’t know if you want me anywhere near any kind of skin thing — that’s a nightmare.
Mr. Hamm, we respectfully disagree…
'A book of poems featured prominently in AMC's widely lauded "Mad Men" sent viewers scrambling to find copies of Frank O'Hara's "Meditations in an Emergency" after the second-season premiere July 27. Google reports the book of verse shot to No. 1 on its "Hot Trends" list for that day and is out of stock on Amazon.com. O'Hara rose to prominence during the New American Poetry era alongside Allen Ginsberg, Robert Creeley, Denise Levertov and Gary Snyder. The book was first published in 1957.' [LAT] (You can also read it here.) Of course, those who saw the Sex and the City movie and were unable to find the book featured prominently in that bit of screendom — because Love Letters of Great Men didn't exist — may now do so.
Mad Men, the Most Important Television Show Ever Reviewed, isn't just a marketer's wet dream, what with all the obvious product placement opportunities. It's also a retailer's boon: The 1960s period drama on AMC has made the era's fashions du moment, with designers looking to the show for inspiration on what to deliver this fall. Michael Kors and Theory have hopped on board, and Bloomingdale's is all but whoring out its display windows for the show. Magazines like GQ are looking to the show's stars for fashion spreads on the season's new suits. Mad Men, just like its ability to influence drinking in the workplace, also influences what you'll wear to work. Thanks to the show, retailers are "offering a refreshing alternative to the flip-flops and baby-doll dresses that had become de rigueur," says AdAge. Which is all well and good — until 90210 premieres Sept. 2 on The CW, and spring fashions are re-stuffed with gladiator sandals, skooter skirts, and polo shirts.
It's 1999 again! Back before the dot-com bust, with-it companies were all about Aeron chairs, free cafeterias, in-house masseurs, and on-the-clock drinking courtesy the office bar. Now, with multiple ad agencies gloating over their top shelf staff offerings, we've officially got a trend on our hands. And perhaps it's all thanks to AMC's Mad Men, a throwback to the good old days where 10am didn't role around without a single malt. CONTINUED »
By now you're well aware of AMC's excellent Mad Men, the Jon Hamm-led drama set in the 1960s advertising world where three martini lunches and sleeping with the girls of the typing class was expected and celebrated. We count ourselves among the show's original fans — not these Johnny-come-latelys with their season one DVDs — and, having professionally stalked at least three of the cast members, are very clearly a little bit obsessed with this show. And now, everybody else will be too, because every damn one of you critics is sharing with America television's best-kept secret, from Entertainment Weekly (plastering it on the cover of their Summer TV Preview) and Vanity Fair (laid out in the June issue as the "high-water mark of male chauvinism") to today's New York Post (Linda Stasi is on the beat!).
But when the crowd forms to lift the champion atop its shoulders, the only thing that's left to happen is The Fall. You know what we mean: the backlash, where something we couldn't imagine not loving in suddenly the punching bag we throw knives at. Don't believe us? CONTINUED »
People working in the advertising industry enjoy watching, talking about, and imitating the show Mad Men. This is interesting because while people working in the magazine industry enjoy watching and talking about the show Ugly Betty, they do not enjoy imitating it. [NYT]
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