I've been watching a lot of "Mad Men" recently, and I've started to notice a few things. First, Don Draper is an absolute boss. If you disagree, consider this: Don Draper played "Tomorrow Never Knows" by The Beatles at the end of an episode this season. This one song cost AMC $250,000 in fees for the rights. Only Don Draper can force his network to spend $250,000 for two minutes of footage and get away with it.
If you are unfamiliar with the series, I'll sum it up in one sentence "Mad Men" follows the lives and careers of several individuals at an advertising agency. In addition to creating my man-crush on Draper, the show has opened my eyes to the pervasive nature of the advertising world.
"Mad Men" is often portrayed as a social critique of life in the 1960s. Women are objectified and marginalized, minorities are absent and the rich white men continue to get richer. But beneath the ruse of sexual infidelity, symbolic imagery and pedantic dialogue lies a hidden cash cow that exposes the deceptive and subliminal nature of modern business.
Don't get me wrong, "Mad Men" is a great TV show. My point is that the business behind the show contains nearly every negative quality critiqued in each episode.
If you watch "Mad Men" closely, you'll notice that nearly every advertising "client" that hires Don Draper still exists today. Hundreds of beer and soda companies have shut their doors since 1966, yet Draper surprisingly develops ad campaigns for Heineken and Mountain Dew. This is not a coincidence, ladies and gentlemen both of these advertisers paid thousands of dollars to secure valuable airtime for their products on one of cable's most popular shows.
Ads today are so pervasive that we don't even realize when we're absorbing them. In every industry, developers are sacrificing content for cash. Why care about creativity and individuality when following the norm rewards you with a new Benz? Companies are paying to occupy our brains and we don't even notice.
In similar fashion, corporations are also shaping the way we think about sports. Before today, I had no idea what Bwin was. Despite having zero knowledge about the company, I was very familiar with the name, and I'm sure any soccer fan is, too. Bwin.com is a sports betting website that also sponsors the jerseys of the famed soccer club Real Madrid. Because its logo is plastered on one of the most popular jerseys in the world, millions (or billions) of people are exposed to the company every year.
As a member of the tech generation, I'd love to say I'm immune to advertising. I ignore most TV commercials and internet banners and do independent research to figure out which product to buy. Unfortunately, advertisers are clever and have developed new strategies to target my peers and me.
I don't plan on betting on sports in the near future, but it hurts me to say that I would probably use Bwin if I do. I'd probably Google "live sports betting" and my "educated decision" would probably conclude that Bwin is the best option since I'm familiar with the name.
Advertising is taking over the sporting world. This year, both teams in the famed boat race between the University of Cambridge and University of Oxford donned the same company's logo on their chest. How do you know who to cheer for when the most prevalent decals on the rival squads are identical?
Because of the profitability of the advertising models used in soccer, crew and NASCAR, high-level executives are discussing bringing similar sponsorship frameworks to the major leagues in America. A study by Horizon Media concluded that the NFL alone could make an estimated $231 million per year if it chose to include sponsors on its jerseys. With this much money on the table, I'm dreading the day when I'll have to sport a Viagra ad if I want to wear my team's colors.
In a way, Dartmouth succumbs to the same money-making pressure. It doesn't make sense that our medical school is named after a famed children's book author. Heck, he's not even a real doctor! But money talks, and our Board of Trustees listens.
I know advertising is part of the business, but what happens when it goes too far? Sports are supposed to be pure forms of entertainment, but money has a terrible habit of corrupting the innocent. I'm hoping that our professional teams hold out against the pressure, but the Bowl Championship Series has proven that any event can be bought if the price is right.
