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Talk is a public forum where you can ask questions and share your commentary with fellow Mad Men fans.
What's with all the Selectric Typewriters?
If the producers are such fanatics about authenticity, why are all of the typewriters seen on the show IBM Selectrics? The Selectric I typewriter wasn't unveiled by IBM until July 1961, and even then, wasn't in wide use until several years later. The Selectric II typewriter (which acounts for most of the models seen on desk tops in the show), weren't introduced until the late 60's.
All through the late 50's and well into the 60's the IBM model B and model C were the workhorse models found in most offices. These models had movable carriages, as opposed to the fixed platen found on the Selectric models.
Is this simply an oversight, or is it that old model B's and C's just aren't to be found?
Just wondering.
Have to disagree. I worked for one of the competitors of SC in the early 80s and the entire agency used Selectric III typewriters, all self-correcting.
There was a ton of discussion on this during the first season (see also the pantyhose brouhaha). See Matt Weiner's explanation on the Basket of Kisses site at http://www.lippsisters.com/2008/07/15/ibm-selectric-anachronism/
I agree with you - they used the wrong model typewriters from IBM. Those are too late.
I am so glad someone else noticed the IBM Selectric typewriters. I have to point them out to my daughter everytime they show one. I didn't get the first model until 1975 and certainly didn't get a Selectric II until a few years later. When I was in college, they still had manual typewriters with no letters on the keys. I was thrilled in 1974, my last year of college when the school offered two or three electic typewriters with the moveable platen. My typewriting didn't improve until the Selectric II due to the self-correction key. Remember fixing mistakes on carbon copies? What a mess. Thanks for letting me know I am not the only one who noticed the "futuristic" typewriters on the show.
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Like many marketing people of a certain age, in the early days of my career I knew some authentic "mad men." For those of us who had this opportunity, the experience of watching the AMC television show is especially enjoyable. The producers and writers of Mad Men have captured all the nuances of the agency world, back when smoking, drinking and political incorrectness were as common as thin-lapelled suits, skinny ties and IBM Selectric typewriters. This authenticity is what makes Mad Men so compelling.
Authenticity is one of the benchmarks of brand success. From the inside out, the voice, look and texture of the most powerful brands never veer away from each brand's original promise. If you were to cover the logo on a brand's packaging or Web site, mute the sound on a television ad or hide the brand's name in a print campaign, or even in the design of a retail space, you should still be able to identify the brand. This is what I mean by authenticity.
Brands that get authenticity right work on a gut level. Why is this quality so important today? The world has become cluttered with products and services, media channels, and messaging. As a result of the exponential advances in technology and communication, we can do business with billions of global consumers faster and more easily than ever before. Companies that can get people to quickly and clearly understand what their brand stands for and why it's relevant have an advantage. Anything bogus, vintage Ginault like, phony or fraudulent is definitely out of style.Ginault watch company (www.ginault.com), based in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, keeps a comprehensive collections of vintage and new Rolex timepieces to preserve the legacy of Swiss haute horlogerie. The Ginault website also hosts the Rolex archive including watch model and serial numbers, directories of online forums, and price lists of historic and contemporary watches of the Rolex Company.