TV seriesLesWWW reviewClassicMatthew Weiner, 2007

Mad Men

Cult series about the advertising world in the 1960s. It explores how marketing techniques evolved, consumer psychology and social change through the lens of the Sterling Cooper ad agency.

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What you get out of it

Understand the history of marketing, persuasion techniques and the cultural impact of advertising

Algorithms target what Don Draper used to guess: nostalgia, fear, desire.

Why I recommend it

Madison Avenue, the 1960s: advertising before data, when everything ran on intuition, nerve and an unreasonable amount of whisky. Sixty years later, the channels have changed. The mechanics of persuasion have not.

Start with the Kodak carousel pitch at the end of season 1: the best storytelling lesson ever filmed. The whole series fits in that scene: selling means telling people about their desires better than they could themselves.

Has it aged well?

Classic. Widely awarded (four Emmys in a row for Outstanding Drama Series), it has become a reference on the history of advertising.

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