It is safe to say pretty much everyone at The Practice are huge fans of the hit series Mad Men. For some of us, namely the older members of the team, the series evokes memories of our early days in advertising all those years ago. This got us thinking!

While we don’t believe in Don Draper’s sentiment that “advertising is based on one thing, happiness”, we do enjoy the drama, the story and especially the retro adverts that are aired alongside the series’ episodes on Sky Atlantic. Has advertising progressed over the decades, or have we lost touch over the years with what’s not only stylish, but effective. Focusing purely on that fantastic medium of television and video, what is the best era in modern advertising?

It’s very difficult to define what makes a good TV advert, so when we trawled over adverts over the decade, we just focused on the ones that resonated and left a lasting impression with us.

The adverts of the 1950’s and 60’s that inspire Mad Men hold a soft spot in our hearts. They’re so blatant and outrageous that it’s beautiful. Although Mad Men portrays a chauvinistic work environment, we could hardly believe our eyes and ears when we saw some of the contemporary TV adverts. The Folgers instant coffee ‘commercial’ as its known in the US, was particularly eye opening. As a husband suggests that he gets better coffee down the police station, the wife travels to the supermarket in search of a remedy for their marriage. The day is of course saved when she comes across ‘new Folgers instant coffee’. UK adverts took a far more tactful approach in comparison to their American cousins with Fairy Liquid claiming that “your hands that do dishes can stay as soft as your face”, although it begs the question why they claimed it was a washing up liquid rather than a hand wash.

For as long as there have been cars, there have been intelligent and quirky adverts that attempt to woo potential customers. The 70s and 80s brought with them a number of gems, an in our opinion, they were some of the standout ads of the period. The 70s and 80s ads were more understated and stylish that their 1950s and 60s counterparts. One of our favourites was a 1977 Peugeot advert, which tastefully claims “you don’t get to be the second oldest car maker in the world by making second rate cars”. At the same time, Levis were proving Don Draper right by demonstrating that sex does indeed sell with their slightly sensual TV ads, a technique which we feel was later incorporated by Coca-Cola in their office block commercials of the 1990s.

And that brings us on to the Golden age for TV commercials. The late 90s and early 2000s played host to the greatest adverts of all time. Whether it was coincidence or competition driving the field, this period saw the most creative and effective advertising we have ever seen. The Guinness surfer ad aired in 1999 is widely regarded as the greatest ad of all time, completely capturing the essence of the product. It seemed to signal the start of a stream of advertising greats. The somewhat controversial Irn-Bru advert in which a mother confesses to her family that she used to be a man through the medium of song is one of our favourites.

2010 and onwards is yet to provide the same impact of the turn of the millennium, but it is still early days and we have hope yet. As a double –dip recession bites, effective and creative marketing campaigns will be crucial to the success of any consumer product.

What are your favourite adverts of all time? Let us know what you think!

Image featured: Mid-Century Ads, Advertising from the Mad Men Era, published by Taschen