Newsweek goes all retro for Mad Men
The clothes. The style. The music. The artwork. There’s something about the 1960s that we all love to remember. Of course, it wasn’t all fun and games and thankfully many things have moved on since then, but there’s just something so wonderfully nostalgic about that era.
It’s why we’re all so excited about ‘Mad Men’, the popular TV series that returns this Sunday in the US with the hotly anticipated Season 5. Twitter, Facebook, blogs, newspapers, TV programs – they’ve all gone mad for Mad Men, as it seems we just can’t get enough of Don Draper’s smooth lines or Joan Holloway’s sensual style.
So obsessed are we about ‘Mad Men’, that it’s created whole movements all on its own. For instance, it’s shaped fashion… Banana Republic brought out a whole ‘Mad-Men-esque’ clothing line last summer, hoping to exploit the TV program’s popularity, and it worked. More recently, home-style magazines are telling us how to re-create that retro look for home… Fox News, for example, is showing us this week how to have a ‘Mad Men’ home makeover. Even thousands follow a fictitious Don Draper on Twitter, enjoying 1960s tweets from the hit show’s lead character.
One thing’s for sure – we just can’t get enough of Mad Men and the 1960s.
Tina Brown, editor-in-chief of Newsweek, knows all this. In fact, she is launching a bold and new experiment with the magazine this week with a special ‘Mad Men’ issue that takes every page back to the ‘60s.
Tina explained this creative approach during an interview with ‘Nightline’ anchor Cynthia McFadden. She said: “I was talking to Matt Weiner, the creator [of ‘Mad Men’], about what we might do, he mentioned to me that in the show, ‘Newsweek’ magazine in the ‘60s was the magazine they are always reading, because at the time ‘Newsweek’ was at the top of its game – it was civil rights, women’s liberation, the Kennedy’s, I mean it was an incredible time for journalism. I suddenly thought bingo! Why don’t we take the magazine? The whole magazine and take us back to the ‘60s…”
And when she said the whole magazine, she even meant the ads. Ads by people like Estee Lauder, Mercedes and Dunkin’ Donuts – all styled in ‘60s retro design. Even the Newsweek website is set to have a ‘Mad Men’ overhaul.
How did this happen? When did a news magazine tap into a movement behind a television series? When did Newsweek decide to piggyback onto the ‘60s obsession we currently have? Why did clothing brands as big as Banana Republic spot an opportunity to sell more clothes and go for it?
Well, savvy brands know that movement marketing is the only way to make an impression these days. The movement in question is Mad Men. It’s a movement that is very current and something brands can exploit. It’s something that has come a long way since advertising in the ‘60s when brands had to persuade consumers. It's about jumping on the back of something already popular. Newsweek knows this. Banana Republic knows this. Welcome to the new era of marketing.
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