Course outline
Module 1
Module 1: The Birth of Madison Avenue
The Birth of Madison Avenue
Knowledge check
Q1. Madison Avenue in New York City became synonymous with which industry by the mid-20th century?
- A. Banking and finance
- B. Advertising ✓
- C. Garment manufacturing
- D. Publishing of newspapers
Why: By the 1950s and 1960s, Madison Avenue had become the nickname for the American advertising industry, as many major agencies clustered their offices along that street.
Q2. Which principle, popularized in early 20th-century advertising, held that consumers were driven primarily by emotional desires rather than rational product facts?
- A. Scientific management
- B. Mass production
- C. Motivational research ✓
- D. Vertical integration
Why: Motivational research, associated with figures like Ernest Dichter, used psychology to uncover the hidden emotional motives behind consumer purchases, shaping how ads appealed to feelings rather than logic.
Q3. What was the primary role of the 'copywriter' in a 1960s advertising agency?
- A. Designing printing presses
- B. Writing the words and text for advertisements ✓
- C. Negotiating with newspaper owners over rates
- D. Managing the agency's accounting ledgers
Why: Copywriters created the written content of ads, including headlines and body text, and were central to the creative process alongside art directors.
Q4. Which early advertising pioneer is often credited with bringing scientific, research-based methods into advertising and famously said advertising should 'sell'?
- A. Walt Disney
- B. Claude Hopkins ✓
- C. Henry Ford
- D. Edward Bernays
Why: Claude Hopkins, author of 'Scientific Advertising' (1923), emphasized measurable results and the idea that advertising's purpose is to sell, influencing generations of ad professionals.
Q5. What was the 'Creative Revolution' in advertising that began around the late 1950s and gained force in the 1960s?
- A. A shift toward wit, artistry, and originality in ad campaigns, often associated with agencies like DDB ✓
- B. The invention of television advertising
- C. A government ban on comparative advertising
- D. The replacement of print ads with radio jingles
Why: The Creative Revolution emphasized clever concepts, memorable copy, and strong art direction, with Doyle Dane Bernbach's Volkswagen 'Think Small' campaign as a landmark example.
Module 2
Module 2: Selling the American Dream
Selling the American Dream
Knowledge check
Q1. In the 1960s, what was the primary goal of advertising agencies like Sterling Cooper in Mad Men?
- A. To provide neutral product information to consumers
- B. To create emotional associations that link products to desirable lifestyles and identities
- C. To regulate the claims that manufacturers could make about their goods
- D. To conduct scientific surveys about consumer preferences
Q2. The Kodak Carousel pitch in the Mad Men series is built around which central idea?
- A. That technology will make family life more efficient
- B. That nostalgia and memories of family can be revisited through a machine
- C. That photography is too expensive for ordinary families
- D. That slideshows are better than printed photographs
Q3. What does the term 'the American Dream' refer to in the context of 1960s advertising?
- A. A government program guaranteeing home ownership
- B. The idea that hard work and consumption can lead to prosperity, home ownership, and social status
- C. A legal right to own property regardless of income
- D. A movement opposing suburban development
Q4. Which advertising concept, popularized by Madison Avenue in the postwar era, suggests that people buy products to express who they are?
- A. Planned obsolescence
- B. Brand identity and self-image marketing
- C. Price discrimination
- D. Direct mail targeting
Q5. Why does Don Draper's personal history matter to the show's exploration of advertising and identity?
- A. It shows that advertising success depends on formal education
- B. His invented past mirrors the way advertising constructs appealing personal images for products and people
- C. It demonstrates that agencies only hired veterans
- D. It proves that 1960s advertisers were required to disclose their backgrounds
Module 3
Module 3: Gender, Work and the Office
Gender, Work and the Office
Knowledge check
Q1. In Mad Men, what is the primary role of Peggy Olson when she first joins Sterling Cooper?
- A. Senior copywriter in charge of major accounts
- B. Secretary to the creative department, a role typically held by women
- C. Head of the agency's accounting department
- D. Client liaison responsible for media buying
Q2. Which phrase best describes the 'office housewife' figure that Betty Draper represents in the show's depiction of 1960s gender roles?
- A. A woman who has rejected marriage in favor of a career
- B. A married woman whose identity and days center on the home and family, often with unfulfilled ambitions
- C. A female executive who manages a household staff
- D. A young woman working temporarily before marriage
Q3. Why does Joan Holloway's position at Sterling Cooper carry significance for the show's exploration of gender and work?
- A. She is the only woman allowed to sit in on client meetings
- B. She uses her authority over the office's administration and her sexuality strategically within a male-dominated hierarchy
- C. She owns a controlling share of the agency
- D. She works exclusively in the agency's art department
Q4. What did the 'Velvet Glove' era of workplace expectations generally require of women in offices like Sterling Cooper?
- A. Equal pay and promotion alongside male colleagues
- B. Professional presentation combined with deference, with women's appearance and charm often treated as part of their job
- C. Union membership and collective bargaining rights
- D. Working exclusively from home on freelance contracts
Q5. In the Mad Men era, what was a common reason women were expected to leave their jobs?
- A. Mandatory retirement at age 30
- B. Marriage or pregnancy, after which many employers and social norms expected them to stop working
- C. Government requirements to make room for returning veterans only
- D. Company policy forbidding any employee from working past noon
Module 4
Module 4: Consumer Desire and the Self
Consumer Desire and the Self
Knowledge check
Q1. In Mad Men, Don Draper's Kodak 'Carousel' pitch centers on nostalgia. What does the slide projector reveal about how advertisers of the era sold products?
- A. They sold products by listing technical specifications and factory details.
- B. They sold emotional associations and memories rather than the product's physical features. ✓
- C. They sold products primarily through low prices and discount coupons.
- D. They sold products by focusing exclusively on scientific testing results.
Why: Don's pitch reframes the slide projector as a device for revisiting family memories, showing that 1960s advertising often sold emotional meaning and nostalgia rather than the product itself.
Q2. The 'Hershey's Chocolate' or 'Lucky Strike' type campaigns in the 1960s frequently targeted consumers' sense of self. What was a common appeal used to link a product to personal identity?
- A. Promising the product would make the buyer more physically strong.
- B. Suggesting the product would express who the buyer was or wanted to become. ✓
- C. Emphasizing that the product was made by hand in small batches.
- D. Arguing that the product was required by law.
Why: Advertisers increasingly tied brands to self-image, suggesting that purchases could express personal identity, status, or aspiration, a central theme in Mad Men.
Q3. Why is the concept of 'desire' central to Don Draper's advertising philosophy in the show?
- A. Because advertisers believed consumers only needed basic necessities.
- B. Because advertisers believed they could create wants that people didn't yet know they had. ✓
- C. Because government regulation required ads to highlight consumer wants.
- D. Because desire was considered unrelated to purchasing decisions.
Why: Don's famous idea that advertising manufactures desire reflects the belief that ads could generate new wants and aspirations, not just satisfy existing needs.
Q4. Don Draper's own identity is built around a fabricated past. How does this connect to the themes of consumer desire and the self?
- A. It shows that identity can be packaged and sold, much like the brands he advertises. ✓
- B. It shows that identity is fixed at birth and cannot be changed.
- C. It shows that advertising has no effect on personal life.
- D. It shows that Don has never worked in the advertising industry.
Why: Don's reinvention of himself mirrors the way advertising constructs appealing images, suggesting that selfhood can be curated and marketed like a product.
Q5. Which 1960s social shift is most closely linked to advertisers increasingly targeting the individual self rather than the family or community?
- A. The rise of the counterculture and emphasis on personal self-expression. ✓
- B. The decline of television as a major advertising medium.
- C. The abolition of consumer credit programs.
- D. The return to strictly agricultural economies.
Why: The 1960s counterculture and growing emphasis on individual expression led advertisers to appeal to personal identity and self-fulfillment, reshaping how products were marketed.
Module 5
Module 5: Masculinity in Crisis
Masculinity in Crisis
Knowledge check
Q1. In Mad Men, what is the primary professional anxiety that drives Don Draper's sense of masculine insecurity at Sterling Cooper?
- A. Fear of losing his biggest client account to a rival agency
- B. Fear that his carefully constructed identity as a self-made man will be exposed as a fabrication ✓
- C. Fear of being replaced by a younger copywriter with better ideas
- D. Fear of failing to meet the financial demands of his suburban family
Why: Throughout the series, Don's masculinity rests on a fabricated past. He assumed the identity of Dick Whitman, and his fear of exposure reflects a broader crisis in which male authority depends on performance and image rather than stable, authentic selfhood.
Q2. Which advertising campaign in Mad Men is most associated with the period's shifting ideas about masculinity and consumer desire?
- A. The Coca-Cola 'Hilltop' campaign
- B. The Kodak Carousel pitch, where Don frames nostalgia as a product ✓
- C. The Lucky Strike cigarette campaign that Don inherits
- D. The Samsonite luggage advertisement
Why: In the Kodak Carousel pitch, Don presents the slide projector as a device for revisiting the past, linking emotional longing and domestic family life to consumption. The scene shows how advertising tied male identity to nostalgia, family, and purchasing power.
Q3. How does the series depict the 1960s male identity crisis in relation to the Vietnam War and the counterculture?
- A. Through characters who reject traditional roles and question the postwar corporate order ✓
- B. By showing the war as entirely absent from characters' lives and concerns
- C. Through unanimous support for the war among all male characters
- D. By focusing exclusively on the civil rights movement as the sole source of male anxiety
Why: Characters such as Ken Cosgrove's writing ambitions, Pete Campbell's uneasy relationship with traditional success, and the younger generation's drift toward counterculture reveal how the postwar corporate masculine ideal was increasingly questioned during the 1960s.
Q4. What does Betty Draper's storyline reveal about the gendered expectations placed on men in the show's world?
- A. That men were freed from domestic obligations entirely
- B. That male success was measured through a wife's visible contentment and domestic perfection, which Don's behavior undermines
- C. That women had no influence on men's self-image
- D. That male identity was unaffected by family relationships
Q5. Why is Pete Campbell often considered a useful figure for examining masculinity in crisis?
- A. He embodies an insecure, status-driven masculinity that constantly measures itself against others and the expectations of class and career ✓
- B. He is portrayed as a fully confident, unproblematic model of postwar manhood
- C. He rejects all forms of ambition and success
- D. He has no interest in family, class, or professional advancement
Why: Pete's entitlement, anxiety about status, and desire for recognition from both his family background and Sterling Cooper make him a clear example of masculinity under strain, showing how male identity in the period was tied to competition and social position.
Module 6
Module 6: Race, Class and Visibility
Race, Class and Visibility
Knowledge check
Q1. In Mad Men, which character's storyline most directly illustrates the limited professional opportunities available to women in 1960s advertising?
- A. Don Draper, who rises from a humble background through reinvention
- B. Peggy Olson, who starts as a secretary and works her way up to copywriter ✓
- C. Roger Sterling, who maintains his position through family wealth
- D. Pete Campbell, who pursues accounts aggressively to win partnership
Why: Peggy Olson's journey from secretary to copywriter shows how women were largely confined to clerical roles and had to fight for creative responsibility in a male-dominated industry.
Q2. Which character in Mad Men is the most prominent example of a Black professional navigating the advertising world?
- A. Dawn Chambers, who becomes the first Black woman to hold a senior role at Sterling Cooper ✓
- B. Sal Romano, who works as an art director
- C. Harry Crane, who manages the media department
- D. Michael Ginsberg, who writes copy for major campaigns
Why: Dawn Chambers, introduced in later seasons, is the show's most significant Black professional character, and her presence highlights the racial barriers and tokenism within the agency.
Q3. In the context of 1960s advertising, what does 'visibility' most commonly refer to when discussing marginalized groups?
- A. The physical placement of billboards in urban areas
- B. The extent to which people of certain races, classes, or genders were represented in ads and workplaces ✓
- C. The use of bright colors to attract consumer attention
- D. The legal requirement for companies to disclose their finances
Why: Visibility refers to who is seen and represented, both in advertising imagery and in professional spaces, and it was often restricted for women and minorities.
Q4. Which social class distinction is frequently dramatized in Mad Men through the Draper family and the Sterling Cooper office?
- A. Rural versus urban living
- B. Old money versus self-made success and working-class origins ✓
- C. Catholic versus Protestant identity
- D. Military versus civilian careers
Why: The show contrasts inherited privilege, such as Roger Sterling's background, with the anxieties and reinventions of characters like Don Draper, whose origins are hidden and whose success is self-made.
Q5. What was a common approach advertisers in the 1960s took when targeting consumers, as reflected in Mad Men?
- A. Ignoring demographic differences entirely
- B. Using market research to identify and appeal to specific audiences, often reinforcing stereotypes about gender and class ✓
- C. Targeting only international markets
- D. Avoiding emotional appeals in favor of technical specifications
Why: Advertisers relied on research and segmentation to sell products, frequently reinforcing narrow ideas about the roles and desires of women, families, and different social groups.
Module 7
Module 7: Nostalgia, Myth and the Legacy of the 1960s
Nostalgia, Myth and the Legacy of the 1960s
Knowledge check
Q1. In the context of Mad Men, what does the show's nostalgic depiction of the 1960s most often do for contemporary viewers?
- A. It offers an accurate, documentary-style record of everyday life in the period
- B. It invites viewers to feel longing for an idealized past while also prompting critical reflection on its exclusions and injustices
- C. It presents the decade as a simple golden age with no social problems
- D. It avoids any reference to advertising techniques so viewers focus on personal drama
Q2. Which term describes the process by which a culture selects and simplifies elements of the past into a comforting, often idealized story?
- A. Historiography
- B. Mythologizing
- C. Periodization
- D. Archival research
Q3. Why is the Don Draper character often discussed as a symbol in Mad Men's treatment of identity?
- A. He is a fully transparent character whose past is never in question
- B. He embodies a reinvented self, with a fabricated biography that reflects the era's emphasis on image and self-presentation
- C. He represents the government's official voice in the 1960s
- D. He is designed as a direct historical portrait of a single real advertising executive
Q4. What is a common criticism of nostalgia as portrayed in period dramas like Mad Men?
- A. It shows too little of the period's fashion and design
- B. It can soften or aestheticize real hardships such as sexism, racism, and the constraints placed on women
- C. It relies too heavily on historical facts and dates
- D. It refuses to include any music from the decade
Q5. How did advertising in the 1960s often relate to the broader cultural shifts of the decade?
- A. Advertisers ignored social change entirely to protect brand stability
- B. Advertising both reflected and helped shape new ideas about consumption, individuality, and the good life
- C. Advertising was banned from mass media until the 1970s
- D. Advertising was used exclusively for government public health campaigns