- McCann Ad Featuring Mad Men - McCann-Erickson
One of the intriguing aspects of AMC’s Mad Men television series is that the program incorporates real business people and companies of the 1960s into the script. It’s an interesting but risky blending of fiction and reality that resulted in a little give-and-take between the show and one of those companies.
The series recalls:
- Hotel baron “Connie” Hilton
- Lucky Strike beginning to feel the tobacco health scare
- Clearasil and Ponds trying to make women beautiful
- Richardson-Vicks, which had just bought Clearasil
- A New York ad agency usually referred to as “McCann.”
Hilton, Lucky Strike and Ponds receive some favorable mentions in the show, but McCann is usually dismissed with a snide, little explained, remark from one of the Sterling Cooper characters. It’s obvious that Creative Director Don Draper does not like McCann. That's especially so after he learns that McCann has bought Sterling Cooper.
After the TV series depicted Draper and his Sterling Cooper colleagues anguishing over the fictionalized purchase of their agency in 1964, the real McCann-Erickson agency exploited the situation. In 2009 it produced a commercial that features Mad Men's numerous mentions of McCann and then welcomes Sterling Cooper to the McCann group.
It also produced an ad featuring the Mad Men logo. It was titled "McCann Men" and subtitled "Where the Truth Is Well Told," a takeoff on the agency's century-old slogan.
McCann-Erickson
McCann-Erickson was one of America’s pioneer advertising agencies, tracing its history back to 1902 when Alfred Erickson opened his agency and 1911 when H. K. McCann opened his ad shop. They merged into McCann-Erickson in 1930 and have been forming other partnerships ever since.
By the 1960s, McCann-Erickson was one of the biggest agencies in the world and had already expanded to Europe, Australia and Japan. Then it made the move that may have given birth to the industry disfavor, or envy, that Draper demonstrates in Mad Men.
Name Changed to Interpublic
The company was reorganized in 1960 into four independent operating units reporting to McCann-Erickson Inc. A year later the name was changed to Interpublic and the world’s first advertising holding giant was born.
Until then, the growth of agencies was hampered by industry traditions prohibiting them to represent competing companies. The creation of independent operating units allowed Interpublic (and later other holding companies) to represent competing clients.
The move generated fears that control of ad agencies was being passed from the creative sectors to the money managers. To Draper, it was not the kind of company a creative person wanted to join. One member of MM’s Sterling Cooper agency, Ken Cosgrove, did go to McCann and later spoke badly about it.
Publicis, Omnicom and WPP
Interpublic went public in 1971 and today is one of the world’s four major agency holding companies. The others are Publicis, Omnicom and WPP. They all operate internationally, have thousands of employees and scores or hundreds of offices. Their billings may run into the billions.
McCann remains one of Interpublic’s lead operating agencies. Recent clients have included Master Card, Coke, Nestle, L’Oreal Dentyne and a cause titled "1billionhungry.org"
The agency prides itself on numerous awards, including several EFFIE awards. The EFFIEs go beyond creative excellence to measure the actual efficiency of advertising.
Reference: AMC Mad Men, The World's Largest Advertising Groups
Mad Men's Advertising People
