Jaguar's appearance in 'Mad Men' surprised automaker
Company pleased with exposure -- despite sticky plot line
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1963 XKE Roadster |
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Life imitates art. Except in the case of "Mad Men," when art imitates life. Or, perhaps, life imitates life.
In last night's episode, one of the story elements involved a play by Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce for the Jaguar automobile account.
Draper says of the Jag, "I think a man getting out of a Jaguar needs a cold shower... The Jaguar XKE is pornographic."
It's an appropriate assessment, as the 1960s-era E-type is consistently reaffirmed as the sexiest car ever made. The agency, for various reasons -- mainly a visit to a brothel that got the client into trouble after his wife found chewing gum on his private parts -- did not win the account.
The star turn by the Tata Motors-owned car was unsolicited.
"We did not have any role in the creation of the Jaguar brand storyline in the AMC television show 'Mad Men,' though we did enjoy seeing the Jaguar brand make a cameo," said a company spokesperson. "Certainly, Jaguar, and especially the Jaguar E-Type, was one of the enduring iconic images of that era."
The company had no direct comment about how the fictional ad exec was depicted.
An added coincidence is that two of the stars of "Mad Men" do extracurricular pitching for luxury cars in real life, but not for Jaguar. Jon Hamm has done voice-overs for Mercedes-Benz commercials, and John Slattery has appeared in TV spots for Lincoln.
