14 May 2012
read: advertising from the mad men era
A beautiful new coffee table book set celebrates the glory days of American advertising from the 50s and 60s.
Much like good marketing itself, this Taschen book set on mid-century ads celebrates the best of American print advertising, and is both highly amusing and thought provoking. In fact, you’ll be hard pressed not to question how anyone managed to get away with selling ties with the slogan ‘Show her it’s a man’s world!’ or the ever so casual sexism ensued from selling an Kenwood Chef mixer with ‘The chef does everything but cook – that’s what wives are for!’
From cars, cigarettes, alcohol to appliances and more, many of the advertisements in the 800 page collection have been restored to show their true brilliance on the page – exactly how they would have appeared on newsstands in that era.
Short essays accompany each book (split into 50s and 60s) and help to delve into a fascinating history of how both the industry and society evolved over that period from the 1950s copy-heavy ads, full of adjectives and underlined words before making way for the 1960s age of the ‘big idea’ with their witty headlines and picture combos.
Assembled from thousands of images, Advertising of the Mad Men Era documents many of the clever campaigns of the 50s and 60s, selling everything from girdles to guns, that were created by the masterminds of Madison Avenue (who in fact coined the term “Mad Men” themselves). At the height of American post-war optimism, the vast two-volume tome paints a fascinating Technicolour picture of society at the time in all its carefree booze-and-cigarette-smoking glory.
Enquiries to Unity Books.
