Mad Men Cleans Up Advertising

I don't have cable. Yep. I've admitted it, we got that over with. It means I rely an awful lot on these here Webs to keep me updated on the important things I would otherwise miss. And it gives me special insight into cross-promotion.

See, just now, while all of you are eagerly awaiting the third season of Mad Men, I'm finally seeing season two on DVD (via Netflix). You have no idea what a spoiler minefield the adoblogosphere is during Mad Men season; only thing worse is trying to avoid finding out what happened at the end of BSG (nononononodon'ttellme — that's next in the queue).

Though that means I see things like the Clorox tie-in with the Mad Men DVD (though I failed to screen-catch them, luckily this guy did) — the white starched shirt that serves as the imagery for the season's packaging with a big lipstick mark on the collar and the headline "Getting ad guys out of hot water for generations." I actually liked it. Clever, quick, appropriate..

The bigger news is Banana Republic's Mad Men promotion. That, I have a tougher time seeing — I don't think that Don Mr. Draper would do his shopping at BR. And I wouldn't think that they'd want to ally their image to the conformist Man in the Gray Flannel Suit of 50 years ago (yes, I know, the cool factor, it's Don Draper, &c., but still...).

Anyway, spoilers abound … like, say, on the DVDs themselves. The extras on disc two give away at least two upcoming plotlines and maybe a twist or three (nice planning there, AMC. Some of us are watching this for the first time). But during a flashback from season one, we saw the switchboard ladies again — and the Missus spots something: we'd already pegged one of them from Flight of the Conchords — and now it turns out that our favorite (live action) insurance spokesperson, Progressive's Flo is a Mad Woman.

Apologies if you all already knew this. As I noted, I'm avoiding all the Mad Men posts.