Fixing Internet Advertising: What Would Donald Draper Do?

Donald Draper is the main character in AMC´s drama series Mad Men. Set in an advertising agency in mid-1960s Manhattan, the show follows Don and his coworkers as they navigate a business-world fraught with duplicitous rivalry. The author uses this character as analogy to his paper on Internet advertising. Internet content is so voluminous, so fragmented, and so variable in quality that it´s hard for ad sales reps to sell against. People consume Internet content at work and on the go, rather than at home and at their leisure. To answer these problems, Don would make the point that a magazine´s homepage is like a cross between its cover and table of contents. What works on covers is the combination of arresting visual and inviting blurbs. Don would also seize on Nielsen research. Internet advertising doesn´t have to pretend to be editorial, but it should, perhaps, be as worthwhile to view.