Mad Men and the Art of Capitalism

The popular AMC series Mad Men chronicles the lives of executives of Sterling-Cooper, a New York advertising firm, throughout the 1960's. Set against the backdrop of postwar consumerism, affluence, and imminent cultural upheaval, the show offers a complex and at times deeply cynical cross-section of American capitalist life. Neither an outright defense of capitalism nor a purely anti-capitalist work, Mad Men seeks to explore and address both the strengths and pitfalls of the free market.

The shows many explorations of themes such as race, gender, class, ethics, and religion all seem to center around a key aspect of capitalist emotional life: happiness. This intangible yet pervasive notion takes on a number of forms for the show's many characters, ranging from professional inclusion, to civil rights, to economic success, to the "white picket fence" that symbolizes upper-middle class suburban life. This longing for "happiness"-- whatever that might mean-- is presented in the show as the driving force behing consumption, and therefore as the raison d'etre for advertising as the engine of consumerism.  Protagonist Donald Draper describes the relationship between consumers and happiness in the show's first episode:

"Advertising is based on one thing: happiness. And do you know what happiness is? Happiness is the smell of a new car. It's freedom from fear. It's a billboard on the side of a road that screams with reassurance that whatever you're doing is OK. You are OK." 

This notion of happiness serves as the basis of power for the executives of Sterling-Cooper. By exploiting this longing within the average consumer, men such as Donald Draper are able to convert emotional impulse into economic activity. It is this commodification of the consumer; or rather, of the consumer's desires, psychological states, etc., that is the true "art" of the advertiser. Lucky Strike doesn't sell you cigarettes. Thanks to Don Draper, Lucky Strike sells you the freedom from fear. The lack of a tangible relationship between this ideal and the actual, physical product seems irrelevant. The goal of the advertiser is to develop a bond between the consumer and the idea of the product. The producer does not make decisions for the consumer; with the help of the advertiser the producer attempts to ensure that the consumer chooses the correct product by his or her own free will.

The exchange would seem to be voluntary. A proponent of free-market capitalism would argue that consumers do have freedom of choice over their purchasing decisions under a capitalist system. However, this begs the question: to what degree does the advertiser influence the exercise of this freedom? By appealing to the public's desire for a state of living that is innately unattainable, advertisers reduce the psychological states of the individual consumer to mere commodities, alienating the consumer from his individual state of being and from his own unique needs and desires.

Marx discussed alienation of labor, the separation of the individual from his productive activity, in terms of relationships between man-to-product, man-to-production, man-to-self, and man-to-others. The commodification of consumer emotions by advertisers is very much a force for alienation in the capitalist society depicted in Mad Men. In addition, the show explores labor relations within the firm itself. At one point Donald Draper, creative director of Sterling-Cooper-Draper-Pryce (née Sterling-Cooper) lectures a young copywriter, Peggy Olsen, on compensation:

The implication of Don's heated debate with Peggy is that, valuable as her contributions to the firm might be, her creative work is not attributable to her as an individual, but to the firm as a whole. Peggy has been alienated from her product as a laborer in exchange for her salary. In this relationship, Peggy, the laborer, is indebted to Don, her employer, for the opportunity to continue producing output and for her compensation. This occurs, however, at the expense of her humanity. In the same way that the consumer is alienated from his sense of individuality by the advertiser, the employee is alienated from the product of her labor. While Mad Men should not be viewed as a wholly Marxist work, its depictions of alienation and class struggle owe much to Marxist theory, and it certainly provides as much criticism of capitalist systems as it does admiration.