As a huge Madmen fan, and in the midst of the depression of the boring intermediate period between seasons, I was quite happy to come across fellow classmate Josh’s recent blog post found here. Like Josh expresses in his post, I was pretty shocked to see that Don Draper lost his characteristic cigarette, which in my opinion is quite difficult to spot on the photo to begin with.
Two things came to mind when reading Josh’s post. First, times change. Of course Madmen is based in a time long ago when cigarettes were part of everyday life. Cigarettes were like chewing gum and had none of the rules attached to them like they do today. You could smoke in restaurants, cars, and even hospitals. There were few health restrictions, no warnings on packages, and most of all, you could advertise. Sterling Cooper Price’s (the agency in the show Madmen) main client is Lucky Strike Cigarettes. Evidently cigarettes are a huge part of Madmen, but Apple decided that just as the smoker is frowned upon today, he shouldn’t be represented in their product even as a figment of the past.
But Josh mentioned another point that is obviously much more subjective. He speaks about the “social responsibility” that companies and their marketing departments are endowed with. I totally agree that companies can make impressions on people and even inspire actions, lifestyles and more; however, after thinking about this for just a few moments I realized how ridiculous this characteristic of our society really is. People today look towards products, celebrities, and television to find their morals. What happened to religion, philosophy, teachers or at least politics? It’s true that Apple has alot of influence on the world today, but who the fuck put Steve Jobs and company in charge of what we and our children eat, like, do and think? Surely they, and other major or minor corporations, should not be the ones to have that place in our lives. I’m sure with some thought, most people would agree with me on that.
So, good for Apple. They can take away cigarettes in hope of making society a healthier place. They can even put them back in the picture, like they did, in order to preserve history. But in the end, I think nowadays people have to take a minute stop thinking about how their favorite television character acts, or what their favorite model eats for dinner and start thinking about what they think about these things. After all, Don Draper may be my idol, but I definitely don’t smoke cigarettes.