Advertising Seduction in Mad Men

We focus on Mad Men (Matthew Weiner, 2007-2015, USA), a television series that deals with the world of advertising on Madison Avenue in New York. Set in the 1960s, the series stages the Golden Age of advertising that takes place during that period. This is a period in which new advertising formulations are tested. Representation strategies change, leaving behind argumentative models, to develop more seductive ones. Our proposal provides specific and rigorous knowledge about the connections between Mad Men and advertising, specifically the seductive kind, as it is staged in the series. To that end, we textually analyze different audiovisual elements of the first season of the series: mise-en-scene, photography, costume, screenplay, psychological characterization of the characters, editing, kinds of shots and acting. We conclude by arguing the advantage of referring, in this context, to these seductive advertising strategies, such as advertising seduction. In Mad Men, this seductive model transcends the advertising profession, to settle in different areas of private life. We are facing an audiovisual text that hybridizes the serial and advertising formats.