Mad Men Sociological / Semiotic Analysis

Every so often there is a television program that attracts a large audience because it is brilliantly written and entertaining. One of the most recent television shows to do this has been Mad Men. The show revolves around an advertising agency in the 1960’s and it’s key players in the company, more specifically Don Draper. Being set in the 1960’s, it is important to do both a sociological and semiotic analysis of the show. Society and human interactions have changed dramatically over the past fifty years and while it is a scripted television show and not a documentary, the drama prides itself on paying close attention to details and keeping everything true to the time period. It would be interesting and informative to do an analysis comparing the 1960’s shown in Mad Men to today’s society. Likewise, with the characters and their clothing, subtle symbols give away clues about who they are and what they’re going through as the show goes on. Semiotics are important to take note of in every context in order to truly understand whatever you’re trying to critically understand or analyze. In the 1960’s society was vastly different that it is today. It was a turning point in American history and dealt with a lot of sensitive issues that are still linger around today although they aren’t as prominent as they once were. This is reflected in the society that is built in the show Mad Men, namely the Sterling Cooper society. Sterling Cooper is the advertising agency that the show revolves around; in Sterling Cooper there is anything you would find in a larger society, such as social norms and bureaucracy. Furthermore, critics realize that "Mad Men deliberately shocks its audience by presenting as reasonable and commonplace behavior we now find appalling," ("The Devil's in the Details," The Atlantic) which gives us a direct juxtaposition of the Mad Men society and today’s society. In multiple aspects of a sociological analysis, there is always a prime example in the show Mad

Bibliography: O 'Barr, William M. "Mad Men: Gender, Race, Ethnicity, Sexuality, and Class." Advertising & Society Review 2011th ser. 11.4 (2011). Project MUSE. Web. 12 Dec. 2011. <http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/advertising_and_society_review/v011/11.4.o-barr.html>. Rogers, Sara. "The Women of Mad Men." Analyzing Mad Men: Critical Essays on the Series. By Scott Frederick. Stoddart. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2011. Print. Schwartz, Benjamin. "The Devil 's in the Details" The Atlantic November (2009): 91-98. Print. Berger, Arthur Asa. Media Analysis Techniques. London: SAGE, 2011. Print.