Voices » Mad Men

The Lessons of 'Mad Men' on Twitter

Daniel Terdiman — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 07:01:11 +0000

By Daniel Terdiman, Editor, Geek Gestalt, CNet News.com

For many fans of the hit TV series “Mad Men,” one of the biggest events of 2008 was the sudden emergence of a number of the show’s characters on Twitter.

At first, it seemed as though whoever was posting regular tweets from within the fictionalized 1960s world of the AMC network show was doing so on behalf of the producers. But as is well known now, they were a group of people who had taken on the task themselves, and who quickly found their project shut down. As is equally well known now, a public outcry and some fancy footwork by AMC’s digital marketing agency eventually allowed them to continue, as they do to this day.

On Tuesday at the South by Southwest Interactive festival (SXSWi) here, three of the people involved in the so-called fan fiction appeared on a panel to discuss the experience of Twittering deep from inside the “Mad Men” story line, and to share their thoughts on lessons that producers and marketers alike could learn from the project.

First up to speak was Carri Bugbee, who Twitters as Peggy Olson, one of the leads on the show.

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DMCA Takedown Notice Forces Twitter to Blacklist "Mad Men" Characters

M.G. Siegler — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 07:00:35 +0000

By M.G. Siegler, Blogger, VentureBeat

The micro-messaging service Twitter Tuesday suspended the accounts of users don_draper and peggyolson. If those names sound familiar, you’re probably a fan of the hit AMC show “Mad Men.” Those two Twitter users take their names from two of the main characters on the show, and over the past several weeks had been providing updates, mostly in character from what I could tell.

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Television's Future Could Be "Horrible"

Steve Johnson — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 07:01:08 +0000

By Steve Johnson, Blogger, Chicago Tribune, Hypertext

Granted, most of the recent TV buzz has been about, rightly, “Mad Men”: Who wouldn’t want to spend summer Sunday nights delving into the deeply misogynistic psychosexual underbelly of a Kennedy-era advertising agency?

But in the big picture, the more interesting effort of the season is an Internet-only offering. “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog,” from “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” creator Joss Whedon, is not only hugely entertaining, but it’s another big nudge toward that future where the entertainment screen will be the entertainment screen, and users won’t worry whether it’s called “Internet” or “TV.”

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