How Gossip Girl Changed Marketing Forever (JK!)

Peter Finocchiaro  —  Sep 4, 2008

So Gossip Girl is back. And sure, it doesn’t have much of an effect on my life. (I only watched like six episodes, and it was only because Blake Lively is a fox, so it’s not even a big deal that I watched that much, right? Right? *Cough*) But yeah, it’s back, and people are excited about it.

Anyways, I bring this up because over the summer the folks behind the show mounted a massive advertising campaign to promote the beginning of the second season, and, as an intern in Manhattan around that time — who was subjected to no less than 6,000 ads a day during my routine treks through Times Square — I am well acquainted with this much vaunted marketing phenomenon.

Don Draper, Welcome to the '60s

Peter Finocchiaro  —  Sep 29, 2009

Through two seasons of Mad Men, Don Draper was a man in supreme control of his destiny. Things didn’t always go his way, but you at least got the impression that — with the notable exception of Betty evicting him last season — he was always in exactly the position he wanted to be. And, if he weren’t, he would extricate himself, quick and clean. No messy emotions allowed.

Not so anymore. Though the assault he suffered in last night’s episode at the hands of the draft-dodging elopers was the most obvious example of Teflon Don being issued a Phenobarbital-laced, fist-sized blow in the head, it wasn’t the only one.

The world is changing. And Don’s life is changing with it.

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