Mad Men Creator Matthew Weiner Discusses Using Real Brands on the Show

Posted on April 5, 2013

Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner did an interesting interview in which he talks about companies whose products they create ads for and showcase as clients on the show. We always assumed they got permission to do entire storylines using major brands' names such as Lucky Strike, Samsonite, American Airlines and Jaguar, but that is not true at all.

Weiner says that companies ask all the time for product placement on the show, but they turn them down because there are too many strings tied to the placement. He says they and Lionsgate take a very aggressive legal position about using brands. So long as they properly use the trademark and don't like about the product, they say they can use the brands any way they like.

As for those catchy slogans Don Draper comes up with? They are original. They don't take credit for work done by the original ad copywriters.

For example, Weiner said Jaguar would never have agreed to the storyline where the Jaguar top exec demanded Joan Holloway sleep with him to get the account. There was also the dark humor when Lane couldn't even commit suicide in his new Jaguar because it was so unreliable it wouldn't even start. Weiner says that model Jaguar was well known to have electrical problems, and Jaguar has had six owners since that car was made. Take a look:

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