What do you think? Does it look like me?
Last week, I came across a blog titled “Things Marketing People Love,” and it had me rolling on the floor laughing. This week, I discovered another fabulous web site tailored to something else that I believe almost all marketing people love: AMC’s award-winning television drama, Mad Men. And I doubt that advertising, public relations and marketing professionals are alone in their adoration of this show.
So, I was almost overcome with glee when I began to notice cartoon characters of my friends and followers begin to pop up on Facebook and Twitter. As the new season of Mad Men quickly approaches, a brilliant marketing mind somewhere decided it would be a good social media experiment to allow people to “Mad Men” themselves. Soon, my friend from church had an avatar that looked exactly like him as his Facebook profile picture. And a colleague from another communications agency in town had done the same thing to herself on Twitter.
I love the show for many reasons, not the least of which is the 1960s style and glamour portrayed by the show’s main characters. I rushed to the web site in order to find out what my 1960s self would have looked like, a la Mad Men.
This concept of creating an avatar in your own image isn’t new. Nintendo’s Wii system has also done a nice job with their Mii avatars. However, using such a tool to spread a targeted message like wildfire throughout social media networks is the type of advertising campaign that not even Sterling Cooper could have dreamed up.