Talk: Mad Men

Coffee mention

Peter and Scott had the following to say over at Minor TV Mentions, and I thought I'd copy and paste here to see what everyone feels: -- Nate (talk) 00:55, November 16, 2009 (UTC)

“This week's episode of Mad Men ("The Golden Violin") had the agency pitching a new campaign to a coffee client and featured the line "Now, we're aware that unsuccessful attempts have been made -- puppets and so forth -- to capture the attention of youth." Since the series is set in the early 1960s, this is pretty clearly a reference to the Wilkins Coffee commercials, which started in 1957. I think the mention belongs here, especially because the reference is so obscure. But because there is no explicit mention of the Muppets, I wanted to throw it out to the community to see what everyone else thought. -- Peter (talk) 06:16, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

If there were other puppet troupes in the 1960s who were selling coffee, they never became as popular as Jim Henson's. I'd say it's a safe bet they're talking about Wilkins. —Scott (talk) 07:52, 25 September 2008 (UTC)”

Others used puppets in advertising, like Stan Freberg, but it is a *likely* reference. On its own, I'd have been hesitant but since we have a Mad Men page now, I'd say include it more or less as is, but with a qualifier: "Though not explicit, this is most likely a reference to Wilkins and Wontkins." That would work nicely, I should think. -- Andrew Leal (talk) 01:08, November 16, 2009 (UTC)

Then again, the quote says that unsuccessful attempts were made with puppets, and as far as I know, the Wilkins Coffee commercials were successful. --Minor muppetz 15:19, November 16, 2009 (UTC)

It is a fictional context, even with the historical time frame, and it says to "capture the attention of youth" was what was unsuccessful. Basically, noting it without claiming that it's an explicit reference (since it could still be coincidence) does no harm. -- Andrew Leal (talk) 17:25, November 16, 2009 (UTC)

Yeah, I think it's worth mentioning in a way where we're not committing to anything, the way Andrew described. —Scott (talk) 17:42, November 16, 2009 (UTC)