Читать книгу Mad Men's Manhattan - Mark P. Bernardo - Страница 7

Many of the great advertising giants of New York are referenced, and in some cases play significant roles, in the storyline of Mad Men. Perhaps the most noteworthy is McCann-Erickson, a huge, international firm in the 1960s and even larger today. In the Season 1 episode “Shoot,” McCann makes a play to recruit Don away from Sterling Cooper using a revived modeling career for Betty in one of its campaigns as leverage. Don turns McCann down, strengthening his position at Sterling Cooper in the process, but the larger firm is heard from again in a major way in Season 3: in that season’s finale, it is revealed that McCann-Erickson has bought out Putnam, Powell & Lowe, the fictional British firm that bought out Sterling Cooper. This event precipitates the major status quo change that sets up Season 4. Rather than work for the corporate giant that he memorably refers to as a “sausage factory,” Don convinces Bert Cooper and Roger Sterling, along with their British associate Lane Pryce, to resign from the company and start a new one. Season 3 ends with the establishment of the new firm, Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce.

The headquarters of the real McCann-Erickson, today part of a global giant called McCann Worldgroup, are at 622 3^rd Avenue at 40^th Street. The agency’s history stretches back to 1902, when a department store ad manager named Alfred Erickson started his own agency, representing clients like Bon Ami cleanser and Fiat cars. In 1912, H. K. McCann founded the H. K. McCann Company with four partners; Standard Oil and Cheesebrough, makers of Vaseline petroleum jelly, were clients. The firms merged in 1930; by this point, McCann had opened offices in Paris, Berlin, and London. Indeed, McCann-Erickson had an international presence when Don Draper would have been in diapers.

McCann-Erickson developed some of the most effective and memorable ad campaigns of the twentieth century. In 1972, its campaign for Coca-Cola, using the catchy tune, “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing,” was a worldwide phenomenon. It also introduced the famous jingle for “Rice-a-Roni, the San Francisco Treat.” It continues to create popular campaigns today, like the U.S. Army’s “Army Strong” spots and the series of “priceless” commercials for Mastercard.

Despite their treatment as the “villains” in the storyline, McCann-Erickson seemed to appreciate its role in TV’s only show about the advertising business. It ran ads in the November 16, 2009, editions of industry publications Adweek, Brandweek, and Mediaweek shortly after the airing of the Season 3 finale, proclaiming “Welcome, Sterling Cooper—Your friends at McCann-Erickson.”