Is advertising more than selling a dream?

"Advertising is based on one thing: Happiness. It's the smell of a new car. It's the freedom from fear. It's a billboard that screams the reassurance that, whatever you are doing, it's OK."

These are the words of Don Draper, creative director of Sterling Cooper in the TV  series Mad Men - or "boxed set" as current jargon now describes the format. It is a 'definition' from the sixties where Madison Avenue created consumer desire and aspirational heights that extolled the virtue of products from cigarettes to presidential candidates. Advertising portrayed a happy world, a permanently sunny upland which could be accessed through the purchase of these desirable products.  Advertising was about manipulation through great creativity.

Of course in the b-2-b world we had less glamorous products and much smaller budgets. However the advertising creativity today would be judged just as politically incorrect as Sterling Cooper extolling the benefits of cigarettes. Our target audience was largely electricians, the white van men who read the SUN newspaper and bought their products from electrical wholesalers. At the wholesaler's counter were copies of our free newspaper which moved the Sun's 'Page 3' girl to the front page with a full page image of her caressing a fluorescent light fitting, or luminaire as they are now called. Trade magazines carried their fair share of advertisements featuring models gazing longingly at, or draped across various electrical products. Many of the products were basically boxes with a label on. As a product manager the photo session could offer a pleasant change to the usual daily fare!

But even for Madison Avenue the limitless expense account fuelled lifestyle of an advertising agency is long past. As Sir Martin Sorrell of WPP has put it, today it is 'Maths Men' not 'Mad Men' in an increasingly digital world driven by data and digital publishing platforms.