Television series and movies, just like any other product, need advertising. According to Stoddart, an advertiser is given a few seconds or at most a couple of minutes to convince the audience that the product on offer is the best in the market (52). It means that the message must be condensed and packed with information that will pass the relevant message to the target audience. The most important factor is that the message presented must be captivating.
This is what trailers are meant for when advertising a television series. They use the best parts of the show as a preview of what is to be expected in the series. Martin says that trailers have become very important in modern society because they show what the audience should expect once the movie is released (45). In this paper, the researcher will conduct a semiotic analysis of a trailer of Mad Men Season 1.
The trailer starts with a soft music on the background. According to Stoddart, “Almost all trailers use some form of music in order to capture the attention of their audience” (65). People are easily attracted to music. It is a sign that the film is not boring. In many cases, the music used may be based on the target audience. The choice of background music used in this trailer shows that its major target audiences are young adults and middle-aged people.
This is confirmed by the next episode that follows. A charming young lady emerges and walks into the elevator of a tall building where she finds a group of men. This episode helps in bringing out the main theme in this film. One of the men said, “I think she is a nice girl, I am really enjoying the view” (Goodlad, Kaganovsky and Adul 43).
The men in the elevator turn to look at her. They approve the statement made by one of them about the girl. It is apparent that this makes her uncomfortable, given that she was the only female passenger in the elevator. However, she makes an effort to stay calm all through, then dashes out of the elevator once she reaches her destination.
The theme presented at this stage is sexual harassment that women are always subjected to in the workplace. Peggy Olson, who has just been molested in the elevator, walks into the office where she is greeted by craving eyes of men who are admiring her and do not bother hiding it from her. She is naïve, given that this is her first time in this office. The passive aggression of men towards female colleagues is confirmed by the statement Joan makes to her.
She says, “Follow my lead, and you may avoid making some mistakes I did” (Goodlad, Kaganovsky and Adul 43). She is actually referring to the sexual harassment from men in this office. She tells Peggy that she has to learn to be tough in order to survive in such harsh environments. According to Martin, this is one of the most popular themes in modern-day films (43). This is so because they present the realities in the workplace. Women are molested by their male counterparts in one way or the other.
Some struggle to stay in such offices just to earn a living. Others consider such molestations unbearable and consider other alternatives. Another group considers playing along, probably to earn promotions or just to survive in such environments. According to Stoddart, critiques have praised the trailer in relevance to how it depicts this form of harassment (88).
She gets an orientation in order to understand what it takes to be in an advertising agency. At this stage, a new theme is presented, which is about business. “Advertisement is like being in a marriage” (Goodlad, Kaganovsky, and Adul 44). This statement brings a new perspective to the field of advertising. By equating advertising to marriage, it leaves the audience wondering what it really means to advertise. He also says, “Bringing business is the key to your salary, status, and self-worth” (Draper 1).
This slightly changes the tone of the trailer, from the funny episodes at the initial stages to a more serious deliberation about what it takes to be in business. Stoddart says, “Some people watch movies which focus on business acumen” (70). Inasmuch as some of the concepts presented in such movies may be impractical, it gives them some clue on how to deal with difficult situations at work.
In the background, someone says, “The modern executive is a busy man with a family, fixtures, and social factors to deal with” (Goodlad, Kaganovsky and Adul 54). Many people struggle with their corporate lives, not knowing how to balance work and family matters. This television show promises to discuss this aspect of life and how one can deal with it. That aspect of a film can attract many viewers, and the director was keen to bring them out clearly.
The next episode in the trailer focuses on what many viewers would be looking for in a movie: how to integrate the social and work life in a seamless manner that does not jeopardize any of them. Someone in the background said, “Advertising is based on one thing, happiness” (Martin 48). We then see a group of executives making fun of a boardroom meeting. They try to find solutions to the problems their firm is facing, but this does not stop them from having fun.
The rigid office structure that existed in the past is not evident in this environment. There is a thin line between the boss and junior officers. They make fun, focus on the work at hand, and then continue with their casual discussions about their social lives. This intertwines their work and social life, something that many executives in the blue-chip companies are now trying to adopt. This makes this movie unique and a must-watch even to the busy business executives. It touches on a concept that they are trying to apply.
Even though this is just but a comical show with very minimal reality in it, Stoddart notes that such shows may help an executive to know where to start and what to expect when introducing new concepts (86). This is so because, in these films, the directors always make an effort to ensure that their shows are as real as it possibly can be, especially if they target the adults as their major audience.
The film then slips back to romance and relationships. According to Maasik and Solomon, life is about relationships, and many television shows always base their narrations on how people struggle to deal with it (102). Office romance, very different from the aggression seen in the first episode, becomes prevalent at this stage. There is a mutual understanding among the parties involved as people look for happiness. As they look for happiness at work, they find it easy mingling with their colleagues and having casual relationships.
The manner in which workmates balance their complicated social lives and their work demands is unique. Stoddart notes that some of the most successful producers and directors of television shows have mastered the art of bringing out the issue of casual relationships in the workplace (76). Martin says that in many practical settings, casual relationships among the employees may be destructive (56). When one is in such relationships, they tend to waste a lot of time trying to please each other instead of focusing on their work.
Such colleagues will go at great lengths to cover for their partners, even if that jeopardizes the success of the organization that has employed them. When the relationship comes to an end, then they develop a unique resentment towards each other. They start looking for ways of piling blames on their ex-partners, even in cases where they are innocent. However, in many movies, such relationships are presented in a way that demonstrates that they can be managed with very little effort.
According to Maasik and Solomon, some films widely use rhetorical tropes in order to bring out their agenda in a clear manner (44). This is clearly demonstrated when talking about the dynamics of advertising. It is a fact that advertising is all about manipulation. It is about creating an image in the mind of the customers about a product that will make them buy it even if they had something else in mind. One of the executives said, “Advertising is about manipulation, that is what I pay you for” (Martin 54).
Advertisers will rarely admit that advertising is about manipulation. However, here was a top marketing executive insisting that he is paying his junior colleagues to manipulate the customers. One would want to watch how the story unfolds in order to know how these executives manipulate us into buying their products by promising the experiences they know they cannot deliver.
This trailer also features some of the social behavior and occurrences that many people would want to ignore, yet they are very important. For instance, we see two men fighting, and soon after that, a lady slaps another in what appears to be a workplace setting. Stoddart says, “A viewer would want to know what could be the cause of such actions.” (46).
It is also apparent that a certain man has taken his own life. His dress code leaves no doubt that he is either in an office or from official duty. It is, therefore, interesting to know why such a man would commit suicide. All these are the factors that create a desire for one to watch this movie.
Conclusion
Trailers offer movie directors and producers an opportunity to advertise their products before they officially released. The manner in which it is structured in terms of the content, flow, and use of music will determine how popular such a movie will be among the target audience. The trailer of Mad Men has brought out several themes, including harassments, office romance, balancing of family and work life, among others. It achieves its primary role of creating a craving among the audience to watch the movie.
Works Cited
Goodlad, Lauren, Lilya Kaganovsky, and Robert Aduel. Rushing. Mad Men, Mad World: Sex, Politics, Style, and the 1960s. Durham: Duke University Press, 2013. Print.
Maasik, Sonia, and Jack Solomon. “The Semiotics of Home Décor.” Signs of Life in the USA. Ed. John Edwards. New Jersey: Wiley, 2015. 94-105. Print.
Maasik, Sonia, and Jack Solomon. “Writing about Popular Culture.” Signs of Life in the USA. Ed. John Edwards. New Jersey: Wiley, 2011. 43-45. Print.
Drapper, Don. “Mad Men – Promo Season by Mathew Weiner.” Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 2009. Web.
Martin, Brett. Difficult Men: Behind the Scenes of Creative Revolution : from the Sopranos and the Wire to Mad Men and Breaking Bad., 2013. Print.
Stoddart, Scott F. Analyzing Mad Men: Critical Essays on the Television Series. Jefferson: McFarland & Co., Publishers, 2011. Print.