Christina Perry and Derrick Gee are two illustrators I commissioned for the Mad Men Unbuttoned book (pre-ordering is for winners!) to make it pretty. There are 5 original pieces and they are beautiful as this wallpaper you see above.

For this illustration we were trying to isolate what motivated us to do the book, we figured out that we loved so much was to getting closer to the characters by filling in the gaps. Looking at the history that surronds them and plugging it into the personal details of their lives. So Christina, Derrick and I imagined all the little treasures we would find in Don’s desk.

*A movie ticket from La Notte (one of Don’s favorite flicks)

*A copy of ‘Man in the Gray Flannel Suit’ which appears on his Sterling Cooper bookshelf.

*Keys to the Cadillac

*Mints for kissing your wife, ex-wife, or otherwise.

*Engraved zippo.

*Cufflinks in case a change of shirts is order.

*And of course, Don’s bread and butter: some Luckys.

Just right click and save! And here is What’s in Joan’s Purse?

December 25, 2009

If Marlboros are for Cowboys then Lucky Strike is For Magical Men.

Leo Burnett, creator of the Marlboro man, was once asked why he smoked Marlboro cigarettes. Burnett responded: “ I guess my feeling is pretty well summed up in the remarks of the vice-president of a competitive agency. When asked why he was smoking a not-too-popular brand of cigarette: ‘In my book there is no taste or aroma quite like bread and butter.’ “

This ad is from the 1936 Lucky Strike print campaign.

November 17, 2009

Pete Campbell shows his upstart tendencies early on in season one when he takes that supremely German woman’s research out of Don’s trash to try to impress the Lucky Strike executives. Not surprisingly, the research is uber-Freudian in nature, discussing the controversial “death wish” theory.

Freud posited that, after World War One, people’s desire to live was counterbalanced by a sublimated aggressive streak, known colloquially as the death instinct. This instinct stemmed from a form of masochism, a wish to destroy the corporeal body.

Our German lady thinks maybe this can hoity-toity up the Lucky Strike advertising! Don disagrees, because — well because you try to peddle some of that European fancy talk on a farm hand like Don and you know he is NOT IMPRESSED. Pete, on the other hand, is looking forward to an age of counter-intuitive advertising (and relying a little bit on machismo), and applies the research to smoking; if they can’t say smoking is healthy anymore, maybe they should embrace the risks. Maybe a real man would like to destroy his lungs from the inside out! Or something. The idea is definitely raw, and the Lees of Lucky Strike pretty much decide Pete’s a little crazy for even suggesting it.

Although Lee Jr. knows a little something about self-destructive urges, no?

• footnote - by Natasha Simons

October 21, 2009

“Where does the average guy go to get a blowjob?”

This is what sociologist Laud Humphreys’ graduate advisor asked him in the summer of 1965. To answer the question, Humphreys visited several “tearooms”- public places that attracted male homosexual activity - in America’s major cities. He published his study in 1970.

Humphreys found that public parks and restrooms were popular sites for “instant,” “disposable,” anonymous same sex encounters. Men of all ages and from all classes engaged in fellatio, mutual masturbation, and, rarely, anal sex. They never kissed.

The participants of such “trade” were usually married, had no social attachment to gay subculture, and identified as heterosexual. They risked arrest and blackmail, but venereal disease was infrequent.

Tearoom sex was at once furtive and public, covert and easily accessible.

Here’s a peek into the Tearoom trade circa 2008 by the marvelous Choire Sicha (it contains the term ‘ass locusts’).

• footnote - by Sascha Elise Cohen

October 14, 2009

Compare these super girly Lucky Strike ads to the decidedly NOT SO here.

2:55pm | 9 notes | Advertising | Lucky Strike | smoking

October 13, 2009

*hard blink*

1:17am | 22 notes | Lucky Strike | Advertising | Smoking

Oh dear!

This is a 1963 Lucky Strike print ad. The ‘It’s Toasted’ slogan seems to be a 1954 print campaign (Also? Kind of girly!). Starting in 1961 the thrust of the Lucky Strike advertisements were more along the lines of “SMOKING, IT’S WHAT MANLY MEN DO.”

Hunters, farmers, fishermen, and men of worthy of a hard won stubble dominated the images — with the requiste the 1,000 foot stare.

Wonder what he’s staring at?

1:04am | 16 notes | Lucky Strike | Advertising | Smoking

August 28, 2009

Then there’s the square-dancing un-toasted version:

“For smoking that you’re bound to like/you just can’t beat a Lucky Strike!”

Yeehaw.

9:22pm | 2 notes | Lucky Strike | Smoking | Advertising

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