Mad Men Myself

As those who read this blog know, I was late to the Mad Men party, having missed the first season during its initial run, but catching up in the run-up to Season Two sometime around the Twitter debacle and a marathon on AMC.

Once I fell into the show, I fell hard. I really got my fandom tweaked when I bought a cartoonish/caricature t-shirt of Joan and linked to the amazing, kitschy artwork of “Dyna Moe” and then I went dressed as Don Draper for Halloween.

Today there’s a new toy for the aspiring 60’s-era copywriter and slavering Mad Men fan: Mad Men Yourself. This is by no means a new or novel idea, but it’s well-executed and it definitely ties together my love and yearning for the show, a very specific visual kitsch and the propensity for folks to decorate their online social spaces with bits of pop culture accoutrements.

Well done, AMC.

I’m not the first to notice the trend, but I predict I’m hardly from the last person, either.

Here’s the output of my efforts, for those that haven’t seen my new Twitter icon or Facebook profile pic yet:

Me as a "Mad Men" era Madison Avenue creative type. Note the facial hair, glasses and coffee. Also, did no one rock the full Van Dyke? Just the goatee? Seriously?

For as good as the Mad Men Yourself experience is, I’m kind of miffed that not everyone can participate in AMC’s other cool Mad Men promotion of the moment, their online Casting Call. Seems you have to visit the retail location of their promotional partner, Banana Republic, to get a code to participate, which earns them the big, read FAIL stamp.

These would be my winning entries, should AMC choose to let me participate:

Me as Don Draper

Me as Don Draper

Is my fealty to mentioning your programming, watching & blogging religiously and giving a shout out to your promotional partner not enough? Give me a call when you’re ready to notify me that I’ve won.

😉

Oh, and Season 3 of Mad Men premieres Sunday, August 16 @ 10pm.

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