How to Read Mad Men's Guide to Persuasion: How Don Draper & Co. Shape Our Desires (Write Well to Succeed) PDF
“The Greatest Show in the History of Television" (Watch & Listen poll of critics in 80 countries) ... “Genius is the only word that does Matthew Weiner’s work justice" (Salon magazine) ... “Mad Men is one of the most literary television shows of recent times." (The Telegraph)Fans of Mad Men can’t get enough of TV's adult soap opera on love and lying, sales and come-ons in 1960s America. But Mad Men” isn’t just about sex, booze, and flawed relationships—or even about the social changes in 1960s America. At its heart, Mad Men is about persuasion. Every ad campaign of Don Draper, Peggy Olson, et al. reveals a strategy to persuade people to do something. Mad Men, created and produced by former Sopranos writer/producer Matthew Weiner, is the winner of 15 Emmy awards and four Golden Globes. Critics call it one of the best TV shows ever. Now Mad Men’s Guide to Persuasion shows the science and logic behind Sterling Draper’s campaigns for Kodak, Jaguar, Belle Jolie lipstick, Maidenform bra, Koss headphones, SnoCone, Heineken, Hershey, and more.As The New Republic once noted: "The show's method is to take us behind the scenes of the branding of American icons—Lucky Strike cigarettes, Hilton hotels, Life cereal—to show us not how the products themselves were created, but how their 'very sexy … very magical' images were dreamed up."Using the latest research on human behavior, Charles Euchner shows why Sterling Cooper’s ad campaigns could work. Overall, Mad Men’s Guide to Persuasion explores more than 50 campaigns over Mad Men’s first six and a half seasons.In brief accounts of the campaigns—and the debates of Don, Peggy, Roger, Pete and Company—Euchner calls out the way master persuaders tap into basic human desires.• What do people want? Material wealth? Security? Sex? Connections with others? Memory and nostalgia? • How do people think? What fosters creativity—and what thwarts it? How do people organize their thoughts and desires? Remember and forget? Make choices? Separate the “signal” from the “noise”? Decide what matters?• How do people connect? Why do people pay attention? Relate to celebrities and ordinary people? Use stories to understand the world? Use memories to understand the present?• How do people act? How do they set goals? Separate taboo from acceptable feelings and ideas? Interact with business associates, friends, and lovers? Deal with discomfort? Decide between competing alternatives?In this pathbreaking book, Charles Euchner taps the greatest minds of psychology, economics, anthropology, and sociology to understand how the world works—all through the popular “frame” of TV’s best drama. Euchner, the author or editor of a dozen books who has taught writing at Yale and directed a think tank at Harvard, is a case writer at the Yale School of Management and the creator and principal of The Elements of Writing.These brief, clear accounts not only give you more insight into an iconic set of TV characters, but also add insight into modern life, long after the age of the Mad Men.Because we are a generation removed from the Sixties, we can see the flaws of old, discredited attitudes—about race and sex, booze and business, cities and families. But the challenges that the Mad Men faced decades ago—and the people they addressed in their ad campaigns—are universal. Mad Men’s Guide to Persuasion is a must read not just for fans of the TV show, but also for:• Advertising, branding, and marketing professionals• Public relations people• Students of behavioral economics and the social sciences• Journalists and other persuadersIn this quick, lively read, Charles Euchner offers a generation of insights into human behavior, wrapped in the titillation and intrigue of the frothiest and most intelligent TV drama of our time.
