Mad Men#Episodes

The series covers the advertising industry centered on Madison Avenue in New York City in the 1960s, primarily following the professional and personal life of protagonist, Don Draper, a creative director and partner at a Manhattan firm. The plotlines also follow the personal and professional lives of Draper's family and co-workers as they relate to him and each other. Overshadowing the series is Draper's double life both as to his true identity, and his unfaithfulness to his family, while he tries to maintain a brilliant and charismatic outward appearance.

In 2000, while working as a staff writer for Becker, Matthew Weiner wrote the first draft as a spec script for the pilot of what would later be called Mad Men.{{cite news |last=Witchel |first=Alex |title='Mad Men' Has Its Moment |work=The New York Times |date=June 22, 2008 |access-date=July 5, 2008 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/22/magazine/22madmen-t.html |archive-date=December 9, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081209063617/http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/22/magazine/22madmen-t.html |url-status=live}}{{cite magazine |url=https://ew.com/article/2008/06/02/mad-men-summers-hidden-gem/ |title='Mad Men': Inside Summer TV's No. 1 Hidden Gem |last=Schwartz |first=Missy |date=May 30, 2008 |magazine=Entertainment Weekly |access-date=July 19, 2008 |archive-date=December 7, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081207104332/http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20203313_3,00.html |url-status=live}} Television showrunner David Chase recruited Weiner to work as a writer on his HBO series The Sopranos after reading the pilot script in 2002.{{cite news |last=Steinberg |first=Jacques |title=In Act 2, the TV Hit Man Becomes a Pitch Man |work=The New York Times |date=July 18, 2007 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/18/arts/television/18madm.html |access-date=August 15, 2007 |archive-date=December 10, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081210102838/http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/18/arts/television/18madm.html |url-status=live}} "It was lively, and it had something new to say," Chase said. "Here was someone [Weiner] who had written a story about advertising in the 1960s, and was looking at recent American history through that prism."

Weiner and his representatives at Industry Entertainment and ICM tried to sell the pilot script to HBO, which expressed an interest, but insisted that David Chase be executive producer. Chase declined, despite his enthusiasm for Weiner's writing and the pilot script. HBO CEO Richard Plepler later became a fan of the show and congratulated AMC on their success with it. In 2017 he named passing on Mad Men as his biggest regret from his time at HBO, calling it "inexcusable" and attributing the decision to "hubris."{{cite web |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/the-atlantic-interview/ |title=The Atlantic Interview – Episode 6: Richard Plepler |work=The Atlantic |date=December 13, 2017 |access-date=December 17, 2017 |archive-date=December 23, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171223064354/https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/the-atlantic-interview/ |url-status=live}}{{cite web |url=http://www.businessinsider.com/hbo-ceo-wishes-aired-mad-men-2014-11 |title=HBO CEO: I Wish We Nabbed 'Mad Men' |work=Business Insider |first=Kirsten |last=Acuna |date=November 20, 2014 |access-date=December 17, 2017 |archive-date=April 15, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180415130347/http://www.businessinsider.com/hbo-ceo-wishes-aired-mad-men-2014-11 |url-status=live}}{{cite web |url=https://variety.com/2015/tv/news/hbo-topper-richard-plepler-talks-hubris-passing-on-mad-men-at-intv-1201453213/ |title=HBO Topper Richard Plepler Talks Hubris, Passing on 'Mad Men' at INTV |work=Variety |first=Debra |last=Kamin |date=March 15, 2017 |access-date=December 17, 2017 |archive-date=April 15, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180415125013/https://variety.com/2015/tv/news/hbo-topper-richard-plepler-talks-hubris-passing-on-mad-men-at-intv-1201453213/ |url-status=live}}

Weiner then moved on to Showtime, which also passed. Lacking a suitable network buyer, they tabled sales efforts until years later, when a talent manager on Weiner's team, Ira Liss, pitched the series to AMC Vice President of Development Christina Wayne.{{cite book |author=Sepinwall, Alan |year=2012 |title=The Revolution Was Televised |publisher=Touchstone |isbn=978-1476739670}}{{cite book |author=Martin, Brett |year=2014 |title=Difficult Men: Behind the Scenes of a Creative Revolution: From The Sopranos to Mad Men and The Wire to Breaking Bad |publisher=Penguin |isbn=978-0143125693}} "The network was looking for distinction in launching its first original series," according to AMC Networks president Ed Carroll, "and we took a bet that quality would win out over formulaic mass appeal."Although Mad Men has been called AMC's first original series, it was preceded by the comedy-drama Remember WENN, which ran from 1996 to 1998.

Weiner cited Alfred Hitchcock as a major influence on the series' visual style, especially the film North by Northwest. He was also influenced by director Wong Kar-wai in the music, mise en scène, and editorial style. Weiner noted in an interview that M*A*S*H and Happy Days, two television shows produced in the 1970s about the 1950s, provided a "touchstone for culture" and a way to "remind people that they have a misconception about the past, any past." He also said, "Mad Men would have been some sort of crisp, soapy version of The West Wing if not for The Sopranos."{{Cite web |title=Matthew Weiner, The Art of Screenwriting No. 4 |url=http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/6293/the-art-of-screenwriting-no-4-matthew-weiner |newspaper=Paris Review |date=Spring 2014 |access-date=April 15, 2015 |issn=0031-2037 |issue=208 |first=Semi |last=Chellas |archive-date=May 5, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150505021036/http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/6293/the-art-of-screenwriting-no-4-matthew-weiner |url-status=live}} Peggy's "psychic scar for the entire show, after giving away that baby," Weiner said, is "the kind of thing that would have never occurred to me before I was on The Sopranos."{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/arts/television/best-drama-series.html |title=The 20 Best TV Dramas Since 'The Sopranos' |date=January 10, 2019 |work=The New York Times |access-date=January 10, 2019 |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=April 12, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190412155500/https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/arts/television/best-drama-series.html |url-status=live}}

Tim Hunter, the director of a half-dozen episodes from the show's first two seasons, called Mad Men a "very well-run show." He said:{{cite AV media |people=Tim Hunter (director) |date=July 1, 2008 |title=Mad Men: Season One – "Red in the Face" audio commentary |medium=Blu-ray |publisher=Lionsgate}}

{{blockquote|They have a lot of production meetings during pre-production. The day the script comes in we all meet for a first page turn, and Matt starts telling us how he envisions it. Then there's a "tone" meeting a few days later where Matt tells us how he envisions it. And then there's a final full crew production meeting where Matt again tells us how he envisions it ...}}

The pilot episode was shot at Silvercup Studios in New York City and various locations around the city; subsequent episodes were filmed at Los Angeles Center Studios.{{cite news |url=http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2010/04/lights-camera-plenty-of-action-at-downtown-los-angeles-center-studios.html |title=Lights, camera, plenty of action at downtown Los Angeles Center Studios |publisher=Los Angeles Times |work=Company Town blog |date=April 7, 2010 |access-date=April 18, 2010 |archive-date=January 20, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130120020218/http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2010/04/lights-camera-plenty-of-action-at-downtown-los-angeles-center-studios.html |url-status=live}}{{cite journal |last=Feld |first=Rob |author2=Oppenheimer, Jean |author3=Stasukevich, Ian |date=March 2008 |title=Tantalizing Television |url=http://www.theasc.com/ac_magazine/March2008/Television/page1.php |journal=American Cinematographer |volume=89 |issue=3 |access-date=January 31, 2012 |archive-date=September 9, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110909130458/http://www.theasc.com/ac_magazine/March2008/Television/page1.php |url-status=live}} It was available in high definition for showing on AMC HD and on video-on-demand services available from various cable affiliates.{{cite news |last=Haugsted |first=Linda |title=AMC Mad About VOD, HD Push for Mad Men |work=Multichannel News |date=June 25, 2007 |url=http://www.multichannel.com/news/cable-operators/amc-mad-about-vod-hd-push-mad-men/331236 |access-date=July 21, 2007 |archive-date=October 29, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171029174644/http://www.multichannel.com/news/cable-operators/amc-mad-about-vod-hd-push-mad-men/331236 |url-status=live}}

The writers, including Weiner, amassed volumes of research on Mad Men{{'}}s time period, so as to make most aspects of it—including detailed set design, costume design, and props—historically accurate, producing an authentic visual style that garnered critical praise.{{cite news |last=Salem |first=Rob |title=Lost in the '60s with Mad Men |work=Toronto Star |date=July 19, 2007 |url=https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/article/237469 |access-date=July 21, 2007 |archive-date=September 29, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929111525/http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/article/237469 |url-status=live}}{{cite news |last=Poniewozik |first=James |title=Mad Men Watch: Lucky Strike |magazine=TIME |date=July 20, 2007 |url=https://entertainment.time.com/2007/07/20/mad_men_watch_lucky_strike/ |access-date=July 23, 2007 |archive-date=July 18, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130718051158/http://entertainment.time.com/2007/07/20/mad_men_watch_lucky_strike/ |url-status=live}} On the scenes featuring smoking, Weiner said: "Doing this show without smoking would've been a joke. It would've been sanitary and it would've been phony." Each episode had a budget between US$2–2.5 million; the pilot episode's budget was over $3 million.

Weiner collaborated with cinematographer Phil Abraham and production designers Robert Shaw (who worked on the pilot only) and Dan Bishop to develop a visual style "influenced more by cinema than television." Alan Taylor, a veteran director of The Sopranos, directed the pilot and also helped establish the series's visual tone.{{cite web |url=http://www.theasc.com/ac_magazine/March2008/Television/page1.php |title=Cinematographers from three top series (Mad Men, Desperate Housewives and Bones) reveal their secrets. |date=March 2008 |publisher=The American Society of Cinematographers |access-date=February 4, 2012 |archive-date=September 9, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110909130458/http://www.theasc.com/ac_magazine/March2008/Television/page1.php |url-status=live}} To cast an "air of mystery" around Don Draper, Taylor tended to shoot from behind him, or frame him partially obscured. Many scenes set at Sterling Cooper were shot lower-than-eyeline to incorporate the ceilings into the composition of frame, reflecting the photography, graphic design and architecture of the period. Taylor felt that neither steadicam nor handheld camera work would be appropriate to the "visual grammar of that time, and that aesthetic didn't mesh with [their] classic approach"; accordingly, the sets were designed to be practical for dolly work.

According to a 2011 Miller Tabak + Company estimate published in Barron's, Lions Gate Entertainment received an estimated $2.71 million from AMC for each episode, a little less than the $2.84 million each episode cost to produce.{{cite web |url=http://blogs.barrons.com/stockstowatchtoday/2011/04/07/analyst-mad-men-deal-with-netflix-should-spur-lions-gate/ |title=Analyst: Mad Men Deal with Netflix Should Spur Lions Gate |date=April 7, 2011 |work=Barron's |author=Avi Salzman |access-date=April 8, 2011 |archive-date=March 9, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130309083241/http://blogs.barrons.com/stockstowatchtoday/2011/04/07/analyst-mad-men-deal-with-netflix-should-spur-lions-gate/ |url-status=live}}

In March 2011, after negotiations between the network and the series's creator, AMC picked up Mad Men for a fifth season, which premiered on March 25, 2012.{{cite web |url=https://deadline.com/2012/01/amc-sets-return-dates-for-killing-mad-men-supersizes-walking-deads-third-season-214765/ |title=AMC Sets 2-Hour Premiere For 'Mad Men' & 'Killing' Return, Supersizes 'Walking Dead', Promises 'Killing' Killer Will Be Revealed |work=Deadline |last=Andreeva |first=Nellie |date=January 14, 2012 |access-date=January 15, 2012 |archive-date=January 15, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120115205435/http://www.deadline.com/2012/01/amc-sets-return-dates-for-killing-mad-men-supersizes-walking-deads-third-season/ |url-status=live}} Weiner reportedly signed a $30 million contract which would keep him at the helm of the show for three more seasons.{{cite news |author=Cynthia Littleton |title=AMC, Matt Weiner set 'Mad Men' pact |url=https://variety.com/2011/tv/news/amc-matt-weiner-set-mad-men-pact-1118034765/ |work=Variety |date=March 31, 2011 |access-date=April 1, 2011 |archive-date=April 2, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110402204941/http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118034765 |url-status=live}} A couple of weeks later, a Marie Claire interview with January Jones was published, noting the limits to that financial success when it comes to the actors: "We don't get paid very much on the show and that's well-documented. On the other hand, when you do television, you have a steady paycheck each week, so that's nice."{{cite web |title=January Jones: 'Mad Men' doesn't pay well |url=http://marquee.blogs.cnn.com/2011/04/08/january-jones-mad-men-doesnt-pay-well/ |publisher=CNN |date=April 8, 2011 |work=The Marquee (blog) |access-date=April 8, 2011 |archive-date=May 10, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130510145602/http://marquee.blogs.cnn.com/2011/04/08/january-jones-mad-men-doesnt-pay-well/ |url-status=dead}}

Miller Tabak analyst David Joyce wrote that sales from home video and iTunes could amount to $100 million during the show's expected seven-year run, with international syndication sales bringing in an additional estimated $700,000 per episode. That does not include the $71 to $100 million{{cite web |url=https://blogs.wsj.com/marketbeat/2011/04/06/netflix-the-fight-for-content-continues/ |title=Netflix: The Fight for Content Continues |date=April 6, 2011 |work=The Wall Street Journal |author=Matt Phillips |access-date=April 8, 2011 |archive-date=April 9, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110409174417/http://blogs.wsj.com/marketbeat/2011/04/06/netflix-the-fight-for-content-continues/ |url-status=live}} estimated to come from a Netflix streaming video deal announced in April 2011.

The opening title sequence features credits superimposed over a graphic animation of a businessman falling from a height, surrounded by skyscrapers with reflections of period advertising posters and billboards, accompanied by a short edit of the instrumental "A Beautiful Mine" by RJD2. The businessman appears as a black-and-white silhouette. The titles, created by production house Imaginary Forces, pay homage to graphic designer Saul Bass's skyscraper-filled opening titles for Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest (1959) and falling man movie poster for Vertigo (1958); Weiner has listed Hitchcock as a major influence on the visual style of the series. In a 2010 issue of TV Guide, the show's opening title sequence ranked No. 9 on a list of TV's top 10 credits sequences, as selected by readers.{{Cite journal |last=Tomashoff |first=Craig |title=Credits Check |journal=TV Guide |date=October 18, 2010 |pages=16–17}}

David Carbonara composed the original score for the series. Mad Men – Original Score Vol. 1 was released on January 13, 2009.

At the end of almost every episode, the show either fades to black or smash cuts to black as period music, or a theme by series composer David Carbonara, plays during the ending credits; at least one episode ends with silence or ambient sounds. A few episodes have ended with more recent popular music, or with a diegetic song dissolving into the credits music.

Apple Corps authorized the use of The Beatles song "Tomorrow Never Knows" for the Season 5 episode "Lady Lazarus" in a rare instance them licensing a Beatles recording to a television show. Lionsgate paid roughly $250,000 for the use of the song in the episode.{{cite web |url=http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/07/how-mad-men-landed-the-beatles-all-you-need-is-love-and-250000/ |title=How 'Mad Men' Landed the Beatles: All You Need Is Love (and $250,000) |work=The New York Times |first1=Dave |last1=Itzkoff |first2=Ben |last2=Sisario |date=May 7, 2012 |access-date=May 9, 2012 |archive-date=May 10, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120510195843/http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/07/how-mad-men-landed-the-beatles-all-you-need-is-love-and-250000/ |url-status=live}}

In addition to creating the series, Matthew Weiner was the showrunner, head writer, and an executive producer; he contributed to each episode through writing or co-writing the scripts, casting various roles, and approving costume and set designs. He was notorious for being selective about all aspects of the series, and maintained a high level of secrecy about production details. Tom Palmer served as a co-executive producer and writer on the first season. Scott Hornbacher (who later became an executive producer), Todd London, Lisa Albert, Andre Jacquemetton, and Maria Jacquemetton were producers on the first season. Palmer, Albert, Andre Jacquemetton, and Maria Jacquemetton were also writers on the first season. Bridget Bedard, Chris Provenzano, and writer's assistant Robin Veith completed the first-season writing team.

Lisa Albert, Andre Jacquemetton and Maria Jacquemetton returned as supervising producers for the second season. Veith also returned and was promoted to staff writer. Hornbacher replaced Palmer as co-executive producer for the second season. Consulting producers David Isaacs, Marti Noxon, Rick Cleveland, and Jane Anderson joined the crew for the second season. Weiner, Albert, Andre Jacquemetton, Maria Jacquemetton, Veith, Noxon, Cleveland, and Anderson were all writers for the second season. New writer's assistant Kater Gordon was the season's other writer. Isaacs, Cleveland, and Anderson left the crew at the end of the second season.

Albert remained a supervising producer for the third season but Andre Jacquemetton and Maria Jacquemetton became consulting producers. Hornbacher was promoted again, this time to executive producer. Veith returned as a story editor and Gordon became a staff writer. Noxon remained a consulting producer and was joined by new consulting producer Frank Pierson. Dahvi Waller joined the crew as a co-producer. Weiner, Albert, Andre Jacquemetton, Maria Jacquemetton, Veith, Noxon, and Waller were all writers for the third season. New writer's assistant Erin Levy, executive story editor Cathryn Humphris, script co-ordinator Brett Johnson and freelance writer Andrew Colville completed the third season writing staff.

Alan Taylor, Phil Abraham, Jennifer Getzinger, Lesli Linka Glatter, Tim Hunter, Andrew Bernstein, and Michael Uppendahl were regular directors for the series. Matthew Weiner directed each of the season finales. Cast members John Slattery, Jared Harris and Jon Hamm also directed episodes.

As of the third season, seven of the nine writers for the show were women, in contrast to Writers Guild of America 2006 statistics that showed male writers outnumbered female writers by 2 to 1.{{cite news |url=http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/worklife/08/17/o.women.and.mad.men/index.html |title='Mad Men' and the real women behind them |author=Rachel Bertsche |work=O, The Oprah Magazine |publisher=CNN |access-date=August 18, 2009 |date=August 17, 2009 |archive-date=August 18, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090818172713/http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/worklife/08/17/o.women.and.mad.men/index.html |url-status=live}} As Maria Jacquemetton noted:

{{blockquote|We have a predominately{{sic}} female writing staff—women from their early 20s to their 50s—and plenty of female department heads and directors. [Show creator] Matt Weiner and [executive producer] Scott Hornbacher hire people they believe in, based on their talent and their experience. "Can you capture this world? Can you bring great storytelling?"}}

{{Main|List of Mad Men characters}}

File:Mad Men season 5 cast photo.jpg

• Jon Hamm as Don Draper, the series' protagonist, the creative director and junior partner of Sterling Cooper Advertising Agency and eventually a partner of Sterling Cooper & Partners. He is a hard-drinking, chain-smoking executive with a shadowy past who has achieved success in advertising. He is married to Betty Draper, with whom he has three children: Sally, Bobby, and Gene. He keeps a lot of things hidden from Betty, including his extensive history of adultery. It is revealed early in the series that Draper's real name is Richard "Dick" Whitman.{{Cite episode |title=Marriage of Figaro |episode-link=List of Mad Men episodes#ep3 |series=Mad Men |credits=Tom Palmer, writer; Ed Bianchi, director |network=AMC |airdate=August 2, 2007 |season=1 |number=3 |minutes=0:55 |quote=Richard Whitman, holy smokes, is that you? As I live and breathe.}}{{cite web |url=http://www.amctv.com/shows/mad-men/episodes/season-3/the-color-blue |title=Episode 10: The Color Blue: Episode Recap |work=Mad Men Episode Guide |publisher=AMC |access-date=June 24, 2010 |quote=the army dog tags of Richard Whitman |archive-date=May 11, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130511105153/http://www.amctv.com/shows/mad-men/episodes/season-3/the-color-blue |url-status=live}} During the Korean War, Whitman assumed the identity of his CO, Lieutenant Don Draper, who was killed during an ambush.{{cite episode |title=Nixon vs. Kennedy |series=Mad Men |network=AMC |airdate=November 1, 2007 |season=1 |number=12}}
• Elisabeth Moss as Peggy Olson, who rises from being Don's secretary to being a copywriter with her own office.{{cite episode |title=The Mountain King |series=Mad Men |network=AMC |airdate=November 19, 2008 |season=2 |number=12}}
• Vincent Kartheiser as Pete Campbell, a young, ambitious account executive from an old New York family with connections and a privileged background. He is married to Trudy (Alison Brie) with whom he eventually has a daughter, Tammy.
• January Jones as Betty Draper, Don's wife and mother of their three children. Raised in the Philadelphia suburb of Elkins Park, Pennsylvania and a graduate of Bryn Mawr College, she met Don when she was a model in Manhattan and married him soon thereafter. Over the show's first two seasons, she gradually becomes aware of Don's womanizing. She divorces Don and marries Henry Francis, and by the last season she develops cancer.
• Christina Hendricks as Joan Holloway, office manager and head of the secretarial pool at Sterling Cooper. Throughout the series, she has a long-standing affair with Roger Sterling, which results in their conceiving a son, whose fatherhood she ascribes to her husband, a physician serving as a military officer in Vietnam, whom she later divorces. She eventually rises to the level of partner at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce and the following SC&P and chooses to create her own firm after SC&P is absorbed by McCann Erickson.
• Bryan Batt as Sal Romano (seasons 1–3), the Italian American art director of Sterling Cooper. He is a closeted homosexual reluctant to act upon his homosexuality. He is married to Kitty, who seems unaware of his sexual orientation, yet begins to realize that something is amiss in their relationship.{{cite episode |title=The Gold Violin |series=Mad Men |network=AMC |airdate=September 14, 2008 |season=2 |number=7}} Later in season 3, Sal rebuffs the sexual advances of Lee Garner Jr., the son of Lucky Strike's founder and a key client. To avoid a scandal, Roger fires Sal to appease the client and keep his $25 million account.{{cite news |url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/katy-hall/bryan-batt-talks-sals-mad_b_501000.html |title=Katy Hall: Bryan Batt Talks Sal's 'Mad Men' Fate, Hollywood's Gay Problem |last=Hall |first=Katy |date=March 16, 2010 |work=Huffington Post |access-date=July 30, 2010}}{{cite news |url=https://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2010/01/sal_not_returning_for_mad_mens.html |title=Outrage: Sal Not Returning for Mad Men's Fourth Season |last=Brown |first=Lane |date=January 27, 2010 |work=New York |publisher=New York Media Holdings |access-date=June 15, 2010 |archive-date=January 30, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100130150511/http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2010/01/sal_not_returning_for_mad_mens.html |url-status=live}}
• Michael Gladis as Paul Kinsey (seasons 1–3; guest season 5), a bearded, pipe-smoking creative copywriter and Princeton University alumnus who prides himself on his politically liberal views.
• Aaron Staton as Ken Cosgrove, a young account executive originally from Vermont. Outside the office, he is an aspiring author who has a short story published in The Atlantic, a source of envy by his co-workers. His wife is Cynthia.
• Rich Sommer as Harry Crane, a bespectacled media buyer and head of Sterling Cooper's television department, which is created at Harry's initiative. Unlike his mostly Ivy League fellows, Harry went to the University of Wisconsin.
• Maggie Siff as Rachel Menken (season 1; guest seasons 2 and 7), the Jewish head of a department store who comes to Sterling Cooper to revamp her business's image. She is initially cool towards Don Draper, who bristles at her assertive, independent image, but they warm to each other and eventually begin an affair.
• John Slattery as Roger Sterling (recurring season 1, main seasons 2–7), one of the two senior partners of Sterling Cooper and mentor to Don Draper. His father founded the firm with Bertram Cooper. Roger is first married to Mona (Talia Balsam) before he divorces her in favor of Don's former secretary, 20-year-old Jane. A World War II Navy veteran, he is a notorious womanizer until two heart attacks change his perspective, although they do not affect his excessive drinking and smoking. His primary function is managing the Lucky Strike account, which is responsible for over half of SCDP's billings.
• Robert Morse as Bert Cooper (recurring seasons 1–2, main seasons 3–7), the somewhat eccentric senior partner at Sterling Cooper. He leaves the day-to-day running of the firm to Roger and Don but is keenly aware of its operations. He is a Republican and is fascinated by Japanese culture, requiring everybody, including clients, to remove their shoes before walking into his office, which is decorated with Japanese art. He is also a fan of the writings of Ayn Rand.
• Jared Harris as Lane Pryce (recurring season 3, main seasons 4–5), the English financial officer installed by Sterling Cooper's new British parent company. His role is that of a strict taskmaster who brings spending under control, in particular by cutting out frivolous expenses. He eventually becomes a founding partner in the new agency, Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce.
• Kiernan Shipka as Sally Draper (recurring seasons 1–3, main seasons 4–7), the eldest child of Don and Betty; her relationship with her mother is often strained. She develops a friendship with Glen, a boy who lives down the street from her.
• Jessica Paré as Megan Calvet (recurring season 4, main seasons 5–7), initially a receptionist at SCDP, who eventually takes over as Don's secretary and is later a junior copy writer. She begins a relationship with Don and they are married by season 5. Later that season, she leaves the firm to pursue her dream of acting. Originally from Montreal, French is her first language.
• Christopher Stanley as Henry Francis (recurring seasons 3–4, main seasons 5–7), a political adviser with close connections to New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller and the Republican Party. It is later revealed that he serves as the Director of Public Relations and Research in the Governor's Office. He develops a romantic relationship with Betty and they later marry.
• Jay R. Ferguson as Stan Rizzo (recurring season 4, main seasons 5–7), the art director at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce. Before coming to the company, he worked for Lyndon B. Johnson's 1964 Presidential campaign. He and Peggy are often at odds with each other due to his abrasive attitude, although they later develop a strong working relationship.
• Kevin Rahm as Ted Chaough (recurring seasons 4–5, main seasons 6–7), a self-proclaimed rival of Don Draper in the advertising world and partner of his agency, Cutler Gleason and Chaough (CGC).
• Ben Feldman as Michael Ginsberg (recurring season 5, main seasons 6–7), a part-time copywriter by Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce who quickly becomes an essential part of the creative team. Idiosyncratic and socially awkward, he tends to speak his mind, which can be both a help and hindrance to him.
• Mason Vale Cotton as Bobby Draper (recurring seasons 1–5; main seasons 6–7), the middle child of Don and Betty, played by Maxwell Huckabee in season 1, Aaron Hart in seasons 1–2, and Jared Gilmore in seasons 3–4.

{{Main|List of Mad Men episodes}}

{{:List of Mad Men episodes}}

Mad Men depicts parts of American society of the 1960s, including cigarette smoking, drinking, sexism, feminism, adultery, homophobia, antisemitism and racism.{{cite video |people=Matthew Weiner |url=http://www.amctv.com/mad-men/videos/the-making-of-mad-men-part-1 |title=The Making of Mad Men |publisher=AMC |medium=Documentary |year=2007 | display-authors = etal |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120323131532/http://www.amctv.com/mad-men/videos/the-making-of-mad-men-part-1 |archive-date=March 23, 2012 }} Themes of alienation, social mobility and ruthlessness set the tone of the show. MSNBC noted that the series "mostly remains disconnected from the outside world, so the politics and cultural trends of the time are illustrated through people and their lives, not broad, sweeping arguments".{{cite web |url=http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/32362041/ns/today-entertainment/t/mad-men-characters-soften-difficult-themes/#.Tzr0j_nhdcc |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110811060552/http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/32362041/ns/today-entertainment/t/mad-men-characters-soften-difficult-themes/#.Tzr0j_nhdcc |url-status=dead |archive-date=August 11, 2011 |title='Mad Men' characters soften difficult themes |publisher=MSNBC |date=August 12, 2009 |access-date=February 14, 2012 |author=Andy Dehnart|author-link=Andy Dehnart}}

According to Weiner, he chose the 1960s because:{{cite web |author=Brancato, Chris |date=January 2007 |title=Advertisements for Himself: More Mad Men spin from Matthew Weiner |url=http://www.wga.org/writtenby/writtenbysub.aspx?id=2765|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150705011737/http://www.wga.org/writtenby/writtenbysub.aspx?id=2765|archive-date=July 5, 2015|access-date=May 14, 2015 |work=Written By |publisher=Writers Guild of America, West}}

[E]very time I would try and find something interesting that I wanted to do, it happened in 1960. It will blow your mind if you look at the year on the almanac. And it's not just the election [of JFK]. The pill came out in March 1960, that's really what I wanted it to be around.… That's the largest change in the entire world. Seriously, it's just astounding. Especially if you look at the movies from the 50s. Once it was acceptable to talk about this idea that teenagers were having sex, which they have been doing, obviously, since time immemorial, there were all these movies like Blue Denim and Peyton Place.… [T]he central tension in every movie that does not take place on the battlefield is about a girl getting pregnant. So all of a sudden that entire issue [of pregnancy] has been removed from society. That was what I was interested in in 1960.

Television commentators have noted the series's study of identity. This theme is explored most candidly through Don Draper's identity fraud during and after the Korean War, in which he takes on the name of an officer, whom he had accidentally killed, to desert the army and enter a more prestigious and successful lifestyle. Tim Goodman considers identity to be the show's leitmotiv, calling Don Draper "a man who's been living a lie for a long time. He's built to be a loner. And over the course of three seasons we've watched him carry this existential angst through a fairy-tale life of his own creation."{{cite web |url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/07/22/DDR51EI41H.DTL |title=TV Review: Identity key as 'Mad Men' starts |publisher=San Francisco Chronicle |date=July 23, 2010 |access-date=March 14, 2012 |author=Goodman, Tim |archive-date=January 31, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110131124555/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fc%2Fa%2F2010%2F07%2F22%2FDDR51EI41H.DTL |url-status=live}} As noted by Gawker:{{cite web |title=Mad Men: The Rise and Fall of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce |url=http://gawker.com/5648783/mad-men-the-rise-and-fall-of-sterling-cooper-draper-pryce|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120609043405/http://gawker.com/5648783/mad-men-the-rise-and-fall-of-sterling-cooper-draper-pryce|archive-date=June 9, 2012|access-date=March 14, 2012}}

Not only is the agency of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce in the business of spinning them—or at least warping the truth—to sell product, but the main character, Don Draper, is built on a lie. Just like one of his campaigns, his whole identity is a sweet fabrication, a kind of candy floss spun out of opportunity, innuendo, and straight-up falsehood.

The show presents a workplace culture in which it is frequently assumed that female employees are sexually available for their male bosses, and in which jokes about the desirability of one's wife dying are told by husbands in front of their own wives. Most of the main characters have cheated on their wives.{{cite magazine |url=https://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20395708_20412953_20829425,00.html |title=Mad Men Explained: A – Adultery |magazine=Entertainment Weekly |date=October 17, 2010 |access-date=February 14, 2012 |author=Schwartz, Missy |archive-date=March 23, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120323021838/http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20395708_20412953_20829425,00.html |url-status=dead}} Marie Wilson, in an op-ed for The Washington Post, said that:{{cite news |author=Wilson, Marie |date=October 19, 2010 |title=Sexism in Mad Men: What Has and Hasn't Changed |url=http://views.washingtonpost.com/leadership/panelists/2010/10/sexism-in-mad-men--what-has-and-hasnt-changed.html|access-date=February 14, 2012 |newspaper=The Washington Post|archive-date=October 22, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101022045646/http://views.washingtonpost.com/leadership/panelists/2010/10/sexism-in-mad-men--what-has-and-hasnt-changed.html|url-status=live}}

[I]t is difficult and painful to see the ways in which women and men dealt with each other and with power. It's painful because this behavior is not as far back in our past as we would like to think. Our daughters continually get the messages that power still comes through powerful men. And unfortunately being pretty is still a quality that can get you on the ladder—though it still won't take you to the top.

[T]he sexism, in particular, is almost suffocating, and not in the least fun to watch. But it's the force against which the most compelling female characters struggle, and the opposition that defines them. The interaction with everyday misogyny and condescension—the housewife whose shrink reports to her husband, the ad woman who's cut out of the after-hours wheeling and dealing—gives the characters purpose and shape.

Aviva Dove-Viebahn wrote that "Mad Men straddles the line between a nuanced portrayal of how sexism and patriarchal entitlement shape lives, careers and social interactions in the 1960s and a glorified rendering of the 'fast-paced, chauvinistic world of 1960s advertising and all that comes with it.'"{{cite web |url=http://msmagazine.com/blog/blog/2010/07/26/1964-is-it-a-new-age-for-the-women-of-mad-men/ |title=1964: Is It a New Age for the Women of Mad Men? |work=Ms. Magazine |date=July 26, 2010 |access-date=March 20, 2011 |archive-date=March 5, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110305031000/http://msmagazine.com/blog/blog/2010/07/26/1964-is-it-a-new-age-for-the-women-of-mad-men/ |url-status=live}} Melissa Witkowski, writing for The Guardian, argued that Peggy's ascendancy was marred because the show "strongly implies that no woman had ever been a copywriter at Sterling Cooper prior to Peggy, but the circumstances of her promotion imply that this was merely because no woman had ever happened to have shown talent in front of a man before," pointing out that Peggy's career path bore little resemblance to the stories of successful ad women of the time such as Mary Wells Lawrence and Jean Wade Rindlaub.{{cite news |last=Witkowski |first=Melissa |title=It's still a Mad Men world |date=February 2, 2010 |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/feb/01/mad-men-women-racism |access-date=August 23, 2011 |archive-date=September 9, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130909104056/http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/feb/01/mad-men-women-racism |url-status=live}} In 2013, the U.S. President Obama said "Peggy Olson gave him insight into how his strong-willed grandmother dealt with life in a man's world."{{cite news |title=Obama's TV Picks: Critically Acclaimed Dramas From AMC, HBO, Showtime and Netflix |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/president-obamas-favorite-tv-shows-667925 |first=Hilary |last=Lewis |work=The Hollywood Reporter |date=December 30, 2013 |access-date=September 19, 2019 |quote=The president also used DVDs to catch up on AMC's Mad Men, according to the Times, telling friends that Elisabeth Moss' Peggy Olson gave him insight into how his strong-willed grandmother dealt with life in a man's world. |archive-date=August 6, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200806223021/https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/president-obamas-favorite-tv-shows-667925 |url-status=live}}

As the show's time progresses into the 1960s, the show portrays a world of liquor-stocked offices, boozy lunches and alcohol-soaked dinners. One incident in Season 2 finds advertising executive Freddy Rumsen being sent to rehab after urinating on himself. During the fourth season, Don Draper starts to realize he has a major drinking problem. In the sixties, bad behavior resulting from drinking was often considered macho and even romantic, rather than a result of addiction.{{cite web |url=https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/televisions-treatment-alcohol-mad-men-rescue-pretty-picture/story?id=11574532#.Tzr6-Pnhdce |title=Television's Treatment of Alcoholism |work=ABC News |date=September 13, 2010 |access-date=February 14, 2012 |author=Carr, Coeli |archive-date=January 10, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130110090951/http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/televisions-treatment-alcohol-mad-men-rescue-pretty-picture/story?id=11574532#.Tzr6-Pnhdce |url-status=live}} One reviewer called the fourth season a "sobering tale of drunken excess" as Don Draper struggled with alcoholism.{{cite web |url=http://www.tnr.com/article/books-and-arts/77279/mad-men-review-%E2%80%98waldorf-stories%E2%80%99 |title='Mad Men' Waldorf Stories Review |publisher=TNR |date=August 30, 2010 |access-date=February 14, 2012 |author=Zoller, Matt |archive-date=January 4, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120104114832/http://www.tnr.com/article/books-and-arts/77279/mad-men-review-%E2%80%98waldorf-stories%E2%80%99 |url-status=live}}

Ad executive Jerry Della Femina said of the show:{{Cite news |date=August 31, 2009 |title=Veteran ad exec says 'Mad Men' really were about sex, booze |newspaper=USA Today |url=http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/advertising/adtrack/2009-08-30-real-life-mad-men-were-about-sex-and-booze_N.htm|access-date=December 14, 2016|archive-date=December 21, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161221125205/http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/advertising/adtrack/2009-08-30-real-life-mad-men-were-about-sex-and-booze_N.htm|url-status=live}}

[I]f anything, it's underplayed. There was a tremendous amount of drinking. Three-martini lunches was the norm…while we were still looking at the menu, the third would arrive.… The only thing that saved us was that the clients and agencies that we were going back to drank as much as we did.… Bottles in desk drawers were not the exception but the rule.

The Los Angeles Times opined that Mad Men excels at "stories of characters fighting to achieve personal liberation in the restless years before the advent of the full-blown culture wars." One reviewer was excited that the fourth season, through Peggy, brought "the introduction to the Counterculture (Andy Warhol as the King of Pop and Leader of the Band), with all the loud music, joint-passing, underground movies so present in those times. Peggy's visit to a loft, with a Life Magazine photo editor-friend, placed her squarely in the center of the exciting creativity so rampant in the underground and also so rebellious against the mainstream." The Huffington Post focused on one scene where "Peggy joins her new beatnik friends in the lobby while Pete stays behind with the SCDP partners to relish…his newly captured $6 million account. As they embark on their opposite trajectories, the camera lingers on their knowing glances. Here is where we find emotional truth."{{cite web |url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/janet-turley/the-rejected-mad-men-seas_b_684968.html |title=Janet Turley: Mad Men Season 4, The Rejected |work=The Huffington Post |date=August 16, 2010 |access-date=February 14, 2012 |author=Turley, Janet |archive-date=April 25, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120425224213/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/janet-turley/the-rejected-mad-men-seas_b_684968.html |url-status=live}}

Critics contend that post-racial beliefs complicate the show by only visualizing people of color at work and rarely in their homes or from their point of view.Ono, K. (2013). Mad Men's Postracial Figuration of a Racial Past. In Lauren M.E. Goodlad, et al. (Eds.) Madmen, Madworld: Sex, Politics, Style, and the 1960s. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, pp. 300–319. Several writers have argued that the show distorts history by not showing black admen, noting real-life successful African American advertising executives who got their start in the 1960s such as Clarence Holte, Georg Olden, and Caroline Robinson Jones.{{cite news |last=Ross |first=Michael |title=The other Mad Men |date=August 8, 2009 |work=The Root |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129078517 |access-date=November 14, 2010 |archive-date=August 11, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100811182245/http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129078517 |url-status=live}} Latoya Peterson, writing in Slate magazine's Double X, argued that Mad Men was glossing over racial issues.{{cite news |last=Peterson |first=Latoya |title=Why 'Mad Men' is afraid of race |date=August 13, 2009 |work=Double X |publisher=Slate Magazine |url=http://www.doublex.com/section/arts/why-mad-men-afraid-race |access-date=November 14, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101114214751/http://www.doublex.com/section/arts/why-mad-men-afraid-race |archive-date=November 14, 2010 }}

Slate writer Tanner Colby praised the show's treatment of race and Madison Avenue as historically accurate, especially the storyline in the third season episode "The Fog" in which Pete Campbell's idea to market certain products specifically towards African Americans is struck down by the company. Slate also referred to the fourth season episode, "The Beautiful Girls", in which Don shoots down Peggy Olson's suggestion of Harry Belafonte as a spokesman for Fillmore Auto, after Fillmore Auto faced a boycott for not hiring black employees. Colby also pointed to an exposé published in a 1963 issue of Ad Age that revealed that "out of over 20,000 employees, the report identified only 25 blacks working in any kind of professional or creative capacity, i.e., nonclerical or custodial." Colby wrote, "Mad Men isn't cowardly for avoiding race. Quite the opposite. It's brave for being honest about Madison Avenue's cowardice."{{cite web |url=http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/features/2012/mad_men_and_race_the_series_handling_of_race_has_been_painfully_accurate_/mad_men_and_race_the_series_handling_of_race_has_been_painfully_accurate_.html |title=Mad Men and Black America |work=Slate |date=March 14, 2012 |access-date=March 14, 2012 |author=Colby, Tanner |archive-date=March 14, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120314195141/http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/features/2012/mad_men_and_race_the_series_handling_of_race_has_been_painfully_accurate_/mad_men_and_race_the_series_handling_of_race_has_been_painfully_accurate_.html |url-status=live}}

Cigarette smoking, more common in the United States of the 1960s than it is now,{{cite journal |title=Cigarette smoking among adults—United States, 2006 |journal=MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep |volume=56 |issue=44 |pages=1157–1161 |date=November 2007 |pmid=17989644 |url=https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5644a2.htm |author=Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) |access-date=September 9, 2017 |archive-date=August 16, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190816014306/https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5644a2.htm |url-status=live}} is featured throughout the series; many characters can be seen smoking several times over the course of an episode. In the pilot, representatives of Lucky Strike cigarettes come to Sterling Cooper looking for a new advertising campaign in the wake of a Reader's Digest report that smoking will lead to illnesses, including lung cancer.{{cite episode |title=Smoke Gets in Your Eyes |series=Mad Men |network=AMC |airdate=July 19, 2007 |season=1 |number=1}} Talk of smoking being harmful to health and physical appearance is usually dismissed or ignored. In the fourth season, after Lucky Strike fires Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce as its ad agency, Draper writes an advertisement in The New York Times titled "Why I'm Quitting Tobacco", which announces SCDP's refusal to take tobacco accounts. The finale finds the agency in talks with the American Cancer Society. In the series's penultimate episode, Betty Draper is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, after having been depicted as a heavy smoker throughout the series. The actors smoke herbal cigarettes, not tobacco cigarettes; Matthew Weiner said in an interview with The New York Times that the reason is that "you don't want actors smoking real cigarettes. They get agitated and nervous. I've been on sets where people throw up, they've smoked so much."

{{Television critical response

| rotten_tomatoes1 = 85% (41 reviews){{cite web |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/mad-men/s01 |title=Mad Men: Season 1 |website=Rotten Tomatoes |access-date=December 18, 2023}}

| metacritic1 = 77 (32 reviews)

| rotten_tomatoes2 = 100% (27 reviews){{cite web |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/mad-men/s02 |title=Mad Men: Season 2 |website=Rotten Tomatoes |access-date=December 18, 2023}}

| metacritic2 = 88 (20 reviews)

| rotten_tomatoes3 = 97% (29 reviews){{cite web |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/mad-men/s03 |title=Mad Men: Season 3 |website=Rotten Tomatoes |access-date=December 18, 2023}}

| metacritic3 = 87 (20 reviews)

| rotten_tomatoes4 = 95% (37 reviews){{cite web |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/mad-men/s04 |title=Mad Men: Season 4 |website=Rotten Tomatoes |access-date=December 18, 2023}}

| metacritic4 = 92 (29 reviews)

| rotten_tomatoes5 = 97% (38 reviews){{cite web |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/mad-men/s05 |title=Mad Men: Season 5 |website=Rotten Tomatoes |access-date=December 18, 2023}}

| metacritic5 = 89 (24 reviews)

| rotten_tomatoes6 = 98% (44 reviews){{cite web |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/mad-men/s06 |title=Mad Men: Season 6 |website=Rotten Tomatoes |access-date=December 18, 2023}}

| metacritic6 = 88 (28 reviews)

| rotten_tomatoes7 = 90% (510 reviews){{cite web |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/mad-men/s07 |title=Mad Men: Season 7 |website=Rotten Tomatoes |access-date=December 18, 2023}}

| metacritic7 = 85 (27 reviews)

}}

Mad Men received critical acclaim throughout its run, and is generally included on critics' lists of the greatest television shows of all time.{{cite magazine |url=https://www.ew.com/gallery/tv-10-all-time-greatest/638312_9-mad-men |title=TV: 10 All-Time Greatest |magazine=Entertainment Weekly |access-date=March 30, 2015 |archive-date=April 2, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402145534/http://www.ew.com/gallery/tv-10-all-time-greatest/638312_9-mad-men |url-status=live}}{{cite web |url=http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/tv/best-tv-show-dramas-of-the-21st-century-1.5965034 |title=Best TV show dramas of the 21st century |work=Newsday |date=June 16, 2014 |access-date=March 30, 2015 |archive-date=March 21, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150321111012/http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/tv/best-tv-show-dramas-of-the-21st-century-1.5965034 |url-status=live}}{{cite web |url=http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv/breaking-bad-game-thrones-rank-time-best-dramas-list-article-1.1912409 |title=Emmys 2014: From 'Mad Men' to 'Breaking Bad,' the Top 10 dramas of all time |work=New York Daily News |first=David |last=Hinckley |date=August 22, 2014 |access-date=March 30, 2015 |archive-date=April 2, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402123356/http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv/breaking-bad-game-thrones-rank-time-best-dramas-list-article-1.1912409 |url-status=live}}{{cite web |url=http://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2013/03/best-tv-dramas-of-all-time/ |title=The 50 Best TV Dramas of All Time |work=Complex |date=March 20, 2013 |access-date=March 30, 2015 |archive-date=April 15, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150415051024/http://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2013/03/best-tv-dramas-of-all-time/ |url-status=live}} The American Film Institute selected it as one of the top ten television programs in each year it aired: 2007,{{cite web |title=AFI Awards 2007 |publisher=American Film Institute |url=https://www.afi.com/award/afi-awards-2007/ |access-date=May 27, 2024}} 2008,{{cite web |title=AFI Awards 2008 |publisher=American Film Institute |url=https://www.afi.com/award/afi-awards-2008/ |access-date=May 27, 2024}} 2009,{{cite web |title=AFI Awards 2009 |publisher=American Film Institute |url=https://www.afi.com/award/afi-awards-2009/ |access-date=May 27, 2024}} 2010,{{cite web |title=AFI Awards 2010 |publisher=American Film Institute |url=https://www.afi.com/award/afi-awards-2010/ |access-date=May 27, 2024}} 2012,{{cite web |title=AFI Awards 2012 |publisher=American Film Institute |url=https://www.afi.com/award/afi-awards-2012/ |access-date=May 27, 2024}} 2013,{{cite web |title=AFI Awards 2013 |publisher=American Film Institute |url=https://www.afi.com/award/afi-awards-2013/ |access-date=May 27, 2024}} 2014,{{cite web |title=AFI Awards 2014 |publisher=American Film Institute |url=https://www.afi.com/award/afi-awards-2014/ |access-date=May 27, 2024}} and was singled out for the "Special Award" in 2015 to honor the show's final season and legacy.{{cite web |title=AFI Awards 2015 |publisher=American Film Institute |url=https://www.afi.com/award/afi-awards-2015/ |access-date=May 27, 2024}} It was named the best television show of 2007 by the Television Critics Association{{cite press release |title=AMC Scores First-Ever TCA Awards With Top Honors |publisher=Television Critics Association |date=July 19, 2008 |url=http://tvcritics.org/amc-scores-first-ever-tca-awards-with-top-honors-2/ |access-date=July 20, 2008 |quote=Members of the Television Critics Association bestowed three TCA Awards on AMC's freshman series "Mad Men" tonight, including Program of the Year, Outstanding New Program of the Year and Outstanding Achievement in Drama, marking the first-ever wins for the network. |archive-date=August 16, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140816091837/http://tvcritics.org/amc-scores-first-ever-tca-awards-with-top-honors-2/ |url-status=live}} and several national publications, including the Chicago Tribune, The New York Times, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Time, and TV Guide.{{cite web |url=http://apps.metacritic.com/tv/bests/2007/ |title=Best TV Shows of 2007 |website=Metacritic |access-date=July 18, 2008 |archive-date=November 13, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081113131723/http://apps.metacritic.com/tv/bests/2007/ |url-status=live}} It was also included in the top ten lists of The Boston Globe, Entertainment Weekly, the Los Angeles Times and LA Weekly, the New Jersey Star-Ledger, the Orlando Sentinel, the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Jose Mercury-News, and USA Today. The show appeared on multiple year-end "most acclaimed" lists published by critics throughout all of its seasons. According to Metacritic's aggregate of such lists, it was the most acclaimed show in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, the second most acclaimed in 2012, the fourth most acclaimed in 2013, the seventh most acclaimed in 2014, and the second most acclaimed in 2015.{{cite web |title=Best TV Shows of 2007 |website=Metacritic |date=December 22, 2007 |url=http://www.metacritic.com/tv/bests/2007/ | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100722081541/http://www.metacritic.com/tv/bests/2007/ | archive-date=July 22, 2010 | url-status=unfit | access-date=August 9, 2023}}{{cite web |title=Best TV Shows of 2008 |website=Metacritic |date=October 3, 2008 |url=http://www.metacritic.com/tv/bests/2008/ | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100322232704/http://www.metacritic.com/tv/bests/2008/ | archive-date=March 22, 2010 | url-status=unfit | access-date=August 9, 2023}}{{cite web |last=Dietz |first=Jason |title=The Best TV Shows of 2009 ... and the Decade |website=Metacritic |date=January 1, 2009 |url=https://www.metacritic.com/feature/best-tv-of-2009-and-the-decade | access-date=August 10, 2023}}{{cite web |last=Dietz |first=Jason |title=2010 Television Critic Top Ten Lists [Updated Jan. 7] |website=Metacritic |date=December 13, 2010 |url=https://www.metacritic.com/feature/tv-critics-pick-ten-best-tv-shows-of-2010 | access-date=August 10, 2023}}{{cite web |last=Dietz |first=Jason |title=2012 Television Critic Top Ten Lists |website=Metacritic |date=December 12, 2012 |url=https://www.metacritic.com/feature/top-ten-lists-best-tv-shows-of-2012 | access-date=August 10, 2023}}{{cite web |last=Dietz |first=Jason |title=2013 Television Critic Top Ten Lists |website=Metacritic |date=December 10, 2013 |url=https://www.metacritic.com/feature/tv-critics-pick-best-television-shows-of-2013 | access-date=August 10, 2023}}{{cite web |last=Dietz |first=Jason |title=Best of 2014: Television Critic Top Ten Lists |website=Metacritic |date=December 16, 2014 |url=https://www.metacritic.com/feature/tv-critics-pick-10-best-tv-shows-of-2014 | access-date=August 10, 2023}}{{cite web |last=Dietz |first=Jason |title=Best of 2015: Television Critic Top Ten Lists |website=Metacritic |date=December 8, 2015 |url=https://www.metacritic.com/feature/critics-pick-the-top-10-best-tv-shows-of-2015 | access-date=August 10, 2023}}

On the review aggregator website Metacritic, the first season scored 77/100;{{cite web |url=https://www.metacritic.com/tv/mad-men/season-1 |title=Mad Men – Season 1 Reviews |website=Metacritic |access-date=February 14, 2012 |archive-date=February 19, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120219151422/http://www.metacritic.com/tv/mad-men/season-1 |url-status=live}} the second season scored 88/100;{{cite web |url=https://www.metacritic.com/tv/mad-men/season-2 |title=Mad Men – Season 2 Reviews |website=Metacritic |access-date=February 14, 2012 |archive-date=December 23, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111223073332/http://www.metacritic.com/tv/mad-men/season-2 |url-status=live}} the third season scored 87/100;{{cite web |url=https://www.metacritic.com/tv/mad-men/season-3 |title=Mad Men – Season 3 Reviews |website=Metacritic |access-date=February 14, 2012 |archive-date=February 22, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120222152850/http://www.metacritic.com/tv/mad-men/season-3 |url-status=live}} the fourth season scored 92/100;{{cite web |url=https://www.metacritic.com/tv/mad-men/season-4 |title=Mad Men – Season 4 Reviews |website=Metacritic |access-date=February 14, 2012 |archive-date=February 22, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120222022120/http://www.metacritic.com/tv/mad-men/season-4 |url-status=live}} the fifth season scored 89/100;{{cite web |url=https://www.metacritic.com/tv/mad-men/season-5 |title=Mad Men – Season 5 Reviews |website=Metacritic |access-date=May 3, 2012 |archive-date=April 30, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120430223609/http://www.metacritic.com/tv/mad-men/season-5 |url-status=live}} the sixth season scored 88/100;{{cite web |url=https://www.metacritic.com/tv/mad-men/season-6 |title=Mad Men – Season 6 Reviews |website=Metacritic |access-date=April 8, 2013 |archive-date=April 4, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130404014103/http://www.metacritic.com/tv/mad-men/season-6 |url-status=live}} the seventh season, part one scored 85/100;{{cite web |url=https://www.metacritic.com/tv/mad-men/season-7 |title=Mad Men – Season 7 Reviews |website=Metacritic |access-date=June 6, 2014 |archive-date=June 30, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140630220636/http://www.metacritic.com/tv/mad-men/season-7 |url-status=live}} and the seventh season, part two scored 83/100.{{cite web |url=https://www.metacritic.com/tv/mad-men/season-7-5 |title=Mad Men – Season 7.5 Reviews |website=Metacritic |access-date=April 5, 2015 |archive-date=April 4, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150404185815/http://www.metacritic.com/tv/mad-men/season-7-5 |url-status=live}}

A New York Times reviewer called the series groundbreaking for "luxuriating in the not-so-distant past."{{cite news |last=Stanley |first=Alessandra |title=Smoking, Drinking, Cheating and Selling |work=The New York Times |date=July 19, 2007 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/19/arts/television/19stan.html |access-date=July 21, 2007 |archive-date=December 10, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081210102848/http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/19/arts/television/19stan.html |url-status=live}} Regarding season 3, Matthew Gilbert of The Boston Globe wrote "it's an absolutely gorgeous, amber-tinted vision of the early 1960s" and added "detailed with enough 1950s-era accoutrements to seem authentically Camelot."{{cite news |last=Gilbert |first=Matthew |title=Cocktails and deception, straight up |work=The Boston Globe |date=August 14, 2009 |url=https://www.boston.com/ae/tv/articles/2009/08/14/mad_men_cocktails_and_deceptions_straight_up/ |access-date=October 4, 2013 |archive-date=October 4, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131004220000/http://www.boston.com/ae/tv/articles/2009/08/14/mad_men_cocktails_and_deceptions_straight_up/ |url-status=live}} The San Francisco Chronicle called Mad Men "stylized, visually arresting…an adult drama of introspection and the inconvenience of modernity in a man's world."{{cite news |last=Goodman |first=Tim |title=New York in 1960, when the 'Mad Men' were in charge – and everything was about to change |work=San Francisco Chronicle |date=July 18, 2007 |url=http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/New-York-in-1960-when-the-Mad-Men-were-in-2580626.php |access-date=July 21, 2007 |archive-date=September 1, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120901100251/http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/New-York-in-1960-when-the-Mad-Men-were-in-2580626.php |url-status=live}}

A Chicago Sun-Times reviewer described the series as an "unsentimental portrayal of complicated 'whole people' who act with the more decent 1960 manners America has lost, while also playing grab-ass and crassly defaming subordinates."{{cite news |last=Elfman |first=Doug |title='Men' behaving badly – and honestly |work=Chicago Sun-Times |date=July 19, 2007 |url=http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/474824,CST-FTR-elf19.article |access-date=July 21, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071017102846/http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/474824,CST-FTR-elf19.article |archive-date=October 17, 2007}} The reaction at Entertainment Weekly was similar, noting how in the period in which Mad Men takes place, "play is part of work, sexual banter isn't yet harassment, and America is free of self-doubt, guilt, and countercultural confusion."{{cite magazine |last=Tucker |first=Ken |title=Mad Men |magazine=Entertainment Weekly |date=July 13, 2007 |url=https://ew.com/article/2007/07/13/mad-men/ |access-date=July 21, 2007 |archive-date=July 18, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070718123016/http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20046314,00.html |url-status=live}} The Los Angeles Times said that the show had found "a strange and lovely space between nostalgia and political correctness."{{cite news |last=McNamara |first=Mary |title=Back when men were 'Mad Men' |work=Los Angeles Times |date=July 19, 2007 |url=http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20070719/ENT/707190301 |access-date=July 21, 2007 |archive-date=September 26, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070926235631/http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20070719/ENT/707190301 |url-status=live}} The show also received critical praise for its historical accuracy – mainly its depictions of gender and racial bias, sexual dynamics in the workplace, and the high prevalence of smoking and drinking.{{cite news |last=Lowry |first=Brian |title=Mad Men |work=Variety |date=July 11, 2007 |url=https://www.variety.com/review/VE1117934162 |access-date=July 20, 2007 |archive-date=December 15, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101215042744/http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117934162/ |url-status=live}}

The Washington Post agreed with most other reviews in regard to Mad Men{{'s}} visual style, but disliked what was referred to as "lethargic" pacing of the storylines.{{cite news |last=Shales |first=Tom |title=AMC's 'Mad Men': A Bunch of Cutthroats Without an Edge |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/18/AR2007071802733.html |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=July 19, 2007 |access-date=August 11, 2007 |archive-date=January 16, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100116002511/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/18/AR2007071802733.html |url-status=live}} A review of the first season DVD set in the London Review of Books by Mark Greif was much less laudatory. Greif stated that the series was an "unpleasant little entry in the genre of Now We Know Better" as the cast was a series of historical stereotypes that failed to do anything except "congratulate the present."{{cite news |last=Greif |first=Mark |title=You'll Love the Way It Makes You Feel |url=http://www.lrb.co.uk/v30/n20/mark-greif/youll-love-the-way-it-makes-you-feel |work=London Review of Books |date=October 23, 2008 |access-date=August 18, 2009 |archive-date=November 5, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091105210440/http://www.lrb.co.uk/v30/n20/mark-greif/youll-love-the-way-it-makes-you-feel |url-status=live}} In a February 2011 review of the show's first four seasons, critic Daniel Mendelsohn wrote a critical review that called Mad Men a "drama with aspirations to treating social and historical 'issues'—the show is melodramatic rather than dramatic."{{cite magazine |url=http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2011/feb/24/mad-men-account/?pagination=false |title=The Mad Men Account |author-link=Daniel Mendelsohn |first=Daniel |last=Mendelsohn |date=February 24, 2011 |website=The New York Review of Books |access-date=February 24, 2011 |archive-date=March 27, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140327230914/http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2011/feb/24/mad-men-account/?pagination=false |url-status=live}}

It was ranked 21st in TV Guide{{'}}s 2013 list of the 60 best TV series ever,{{cite web |url=https://www.tvguide.com/news/tv-guide-magazine-60-best-series-1074962/ |title=TV Guide Magazine's 60 Best Series of All Time |work=TV Guide |first1=Bruce |last1=Fretts |first2=Matt |last2=Roush |date=December 23, 2013 |access-date=October 17, 2015 |archive-date=January 15, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180115211728/http://www.tvguide.com/news/tv-guide-magazine-60-best-series-1074962/ |url-status=live}} and the Writers Guild of America named it seventh in a list of the 101 best-written shows in the history of television.{{cite web |url=https://deadline.com/2013/06/wgas-101-best-written-tv-series-of-all-time-complete-list-512061/ |title='101 Best Written TV Series Of All Time' From WGA/TV Guide: Complete List |website=Deadline |date=June 2, 2013 |access-date=June 3, 2013 |archive-date=June 7, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130607063617/http://www.deadline.com/2013/06/wgas-101-best-written-tv-series-of-all-time-complete-list/ |url-status=live}} In 2019, The Guardian, which ranked the show 3rd on its list of the 100 best TV shows of the 21st century, stated that by spanning the entire 60s, Mad Men showed "the mammoth social shifts in an ad agency in minute detail, and became…a meditation on how modern America came to be made, one iconic advert at a time."{{cite web |title=The 100 best TV shows of the 21st century |url=https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/sep/16/100-best-tv-shows-of-the-21st-century |work=The Guardian |date=September 16, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191101054025/https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/sep/16/100-best-tv-shows-of-the-21st-century |access-date=November 3, 2019 |archive-date=November 1, 2019 |url-status=live}} Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone called Mad Men "the greatest TV drama of all time."{{cite magazine |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/news/don-drapers-long-journey-into-darkness-on-mad-men-20130405 |title=Don Draper's Long Journey Into Darkness on 'Mad Men' |magazine=Rolling Stone |first=Rob |last=Sheffield |date=April 5, 2013 |access-date=March 31, 2015 |archive-date=April 4, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150404220041/http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/news/don-drapers-long-journey-into-darkness-on-mad-men-20130405 |url-status=live}} In 2022, Rolling Stone ranked Mad Men as the seventh-greatest TV show of all time.{{cite magazine |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-lists/best-tv-shows-of-all-time-1234598313/mad-men-5-1234599286/ |title=The 100 Greatest TV Shows of All Time |first=Alan |last=Sepinwall |magazine=Rolling Stone |date=September 26, 2022|access-date=September 30, 2022}} In 2023, Variety chose Mad Men as the #2 greatest TV show of all time.{{cite web|url=https://variety.com/lists/greatest-tv-shows-of-all-time/mad-men-2/|title=The 100 Greatest TV Shows of All Time|website=Variety|date=December 20, 2023|access-date=December 20, 2023}} In October 2023, chief critics of The Hollywood Reporter ranked Mad Men the greatest show of the 21st century, stating that "In strange ways, Mad Men was more optimistic than its prestige television cohorts, and in many other ways it was more cynical. Reconciling those two seemingly contradictory impulses over seven seasons was heartbreaking, hilarious, bleak and inspiring, generating a lifetime of instantly recognizable memes, marvelously quotable dialogue and indelible moments."{{cite web |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lists/best-tv-shows-21st-century/ |title=Hollywood Reporter Critics Pick the 50 Best TV Shows of the 21st Century (So Far) |website=The Hollywood Reporter |first1=Daniel |last1=Fienberg |first2=Angie |last2=Han |first3=Robyn |last3=Bahr |date=October 4, 2023 |access-date=May 26, 2024}}

Viewership for the premiere at 10:00 pm on July 19, 2007, was higher than any other AMC original series at that time, and attained a 1.4 household rating, with 1.2 million households and 1.65 million total viewers.{{cite web |url=http://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/news-articles/not-hot-cable-summer-all/83511 |title=Not A Hot Cable Summer for All |last=Becker |first=Anne |work=Broadcasting & Cable |date=August 10, 2007 |access-date=April 18, 2015 |archive-date=April 19, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150419121522/http://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/news-articles/not-hot-cable-summer-all/83511 |url-status=live}}{{cite news |last=Nordyke |first=Kimberly |title=AMC "Mad" about ratings for series bow |work=The Hollywood Reporter |date=July 20, 2007 |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/television-madmen-dc-idUSN2023729420070721 |access-date=July 21, 2007 |archive-date=March 8, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110308012612/http://www.reuters.com/article/2007/07/21/television-madmen-dc-idUSN2023729420070721 |url-status=live}} The numbers for the first season premiere were more than doubled for the heavily promoted{{cite news |url=https://entertainment.time.com/2008/08/06/maybe_amc_can_get_a_10_million/ |title=Maybe AMC Can Get a $10 Million Refund |magazine=Time |author=Poniewozik, James |date=August 6, 2008 |access-date=October 25, 2009 |archive-date=March 1, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140301173220/http://entertainment.time.com/2008/08/06/maybe_amc_can_get_a_10_million/ |url-status=live}} second season premiere, which received 2.06 million viewers.{{cite news |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/blogs/live-feed/mad-men-drops-sharply-episode-50596 |title='Mad Men' drops sharply in second episode |work=The Hollywood Reporter |author=Hibberd, James |date=August 5, 2008 |access-date=October 25, 2009 |archive-date=March 17, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140317095741/http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/blogs/live-feed/mad-men-drops-sharply-episode-50596 |url-status=live}} A major drop in viewership for the episode following the second season premiere prompted concern from some television critics. However, 1.75 million people viewed the second season finale, which was up 20% over the season 2 average, and significantly more than the 926,000 people who viewed the first season finale. The cumulative audience for the episode was 2.9 million viewers, when the two re-broadcasts at 11:00 pm and 1:00 am were factored in.{{cite web |url=http://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/programming/mad-men-season-finale-draws-175-mil-viewers/33543 |title='Mad Men' Season Finale Draws 1.75 Mil. Viewers |work=Broadcasting & Cable |author=Guthrie, Marisa |date=October 27, 2008 |access-date=December 17, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140225122712/http://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/programming/mad-men-season-finale-draws-175-mil-viewers/33543 |archive-date=February 25, 2014}}

The third season premiere, which aired August 16, 2009, garnered 2.8 million views on its first run, and 0.78 million with the 11:00 pm and 1:00 am repeats.{{cite web |url=http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2009/08/17/mad-men-season-3-premiere-sets-ratings-records/24908 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120131011837/http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2009/08/17/mad-men-season-3-premiere-sets-ratings-records/24908/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=January 31, 2012 |title=Updated – Mad Men season 3 premiere snares series-highs |publisher=TV by the Numbers |last=Seidman |first=Robert |date=August 17, 2009 |access-date=April 16, 2011}} In 2009, Mad Men was second in Nielsen's list of Top 10 timeshifted primetime TV programs, with a 57.7% gain in viewers, second only to the final season of Battlestar Galactica.{{cite news |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/blogs/live-feed/nielsens-top-10-tv-shows-52739 |title=Nielsen's Top 10 TV Shows of 2009 |work=The Hollywood Reporter |author=Hibberd, James |date=December 11, 2009 |access-date=December 17, 2009 |archive-date=May 27, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110527053520/http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/blogs/live-feed/nielsens-top-10-tv-shows-52739 |url-status=live}}

The fourth season premiere received 2.9 million viewers, and was up five percent from the ratings for the debut of season 3 and up 61 percent from the third season average, and became the most watched-episode in AMC history until its fifth season premiere, and later, the series premieres of The Walking Dead and Better Call Saul.{{cite web |url=http://www.multichannel.com/news/content/mad-men-delivers-29-million-viewers-season-four-premiere/363054 |title='Mad Men' Delivers 2.9 Million Viewers In Season Four Premiere |publisher=Multichannel.com |date=July 26, 2010 |access-date=February 14, 2012 |author=Umstead, R. Thomas |archive-date=October 29, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171029124601/http://www.multichannel.com/news/content/mad-men-delivers-29-million-viewers-season-four-premiere/363054 |url-status=live}}{{cite web |url=http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2015/02/09/the-walking-dead-returns-to-15-6-million-viewers-better-call-saul-is-biggest-series-premiere-in-cable-history/361195/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150210011146/http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2015/02/09/the-walking-dead-returns-to-15-6-million-viewers-better-call-saul-is-biggest-series-premiere-in-cable-history/361195/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=February 10, 2015 |title='The Walking Dead' Returns to 15.6 Million Viewers + 'Better Call Saul' is Biggest Series Premiere in Cable History |work=TV by the Numbers |first=Amanda |last=Kondolojy |date=February 9, 2015 |access-date=February 9, 2015}}

The fifth season premiere, "A Little Kiss", was the most watched episode of Mad Men of all time to date, receiving 3.54 million viewers and 1.6 million viewers in the 18–49 demographic. Before the fifth season, Mad Men had never achieved above a 1.0 in the 18–49 demographic. Charlie Collier, AMC's president, said that:

{{blockquote|For each of the five Mad Men seasons Matthew Weiner and his team have crafted a beautifully told story and each season a larger audience has responded; a rare accomplishment. We couldn't be more proud of this program, the brilliant writers, cast and crew, and the entire team on each side of the camera.{{cite web |url=http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2012/03/26/season-five-premiere-is-most-watched-mad-men-episode-ever/126048/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120329015557/http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2012/03/26/season-five-premiere-is-most-watched-mad-men-episode-ever/126048/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=March 29, 2012 |title=Season Five Premiere Is Most Watched Episode of 'Mad Men' ever |publisher=TV by the Numbers |date=March 26, 2012 |access-date=March 26, 2012 |author=Kondolojy, Amanda}}}}

The fifth season finale, "The Phantom", was watched by 2.7 million viewers, which was the highest ratings for a Mad Men finale until the series finale aired on May 17, 2015.{{cite web |url=http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2012/06/11/season-five-of-mad-men-has-most-watched-season-finale-in-series-history/137580/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120615172227/http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2012/06/11/season-five-of-mad-men-has-most-watched-season-finale-in-series-history/137580/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=June 15, 2012 |title=Season Five of Mad Men Has Most Watched Season Finale in Series History |publisher=TV by the Numbers |date=June 11, 2012 |access-date=June 12, 2012 |author=Bibel, Sara}} In 2012, the series was second in Nielsen's list of Top 10 timeshifted primetime TV programs, with a 127% gain in viewers.{{cite web |url=http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/newswire/2012/nielsen-tops-of-2012-television.html |title=Nielsen Tops of 2012: Television |publisher=Nielsen |date=December 11, 2012 |access-date=April 4, 2013 |archive-date=March 8, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130308172245/http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/newswire/2012/nielsen-tops-of-2012-television.html |url-status=live}}

On April 7, 2013, the sixth season premiered to 3.37 million viewers, and 1.1 adults 18–49. This was down from the fifth season premiere, but up from the fifth season finale. The sixth season finale on June 23, 2013, attracted 2.69 million total viewers, and achieved 0.9 adults 18–49 demographic rating; on par with the fifth season finale. This helped bring the season average up to 2.49 million viewers, down just slightly from the season five average.

The first part of the seventh season, titled "The Beginning", premiered on April 13, 2014, and garnered 2.27 million total viewers and 0.8 adults 18–49 rating. This was down 48 percent in viewers and 38 percent in adults 18–49 from the sixth season premiere, and down from the sixth season finale. The first part of season seven concluded on May 25, 2014, to 1.94 million viewers and a 0.7 adults 18–49 rating, down in both from the season 6 finale. This brought the average for the first part of the season down to 2.01 million viewers. The second part of season seven, titled "The End of an Era", premiered on April 5, 2015, to 2.27 million viewers and a 0.8 adults 18–49 rating; identical to the season 7 premiere. The series finale of Mad Men aired on May 17, 2015, to 3.29 million viewers and 1.1 adults 18–49 rating. 1.7 millions of these viewers were aged 25–54,{{cite web |url=https://www.vulture.com/2015/05/mad-men-finale-may-be-most-watched-episode-ever.html |title=Mad Men's Finale May Be its Most-Watched Episode Ever |last=Adalian |first=Josef |work=Vulture |date=May 19, 2015 |access-date=May 19, 2015 |archive-date=May 21, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150521073427/http://www.vulture.com/2015/05/mad-men-finale-may-be-most-watched-episode-ever.html |url-status=live}} and 1.4 million were ages 18–49,{{cite web |url=http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2015/05/19/mad-men-final-episode-sets-finale-high-for-both-adults-18-49-and-total-viewers/406131/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150521015129/http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2015/05/19/mad-men-final-episode-sets-finale-high-for-both-adults-18-49-and-total-viewers/406131/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=May 21, 2015 |title='Mad Men' Final Episode Sets Finale High for Both Adults 18–49 and Total Viewers |last=Kondolojy |first=Amanda |work=TV by the Numbers |date=May 19, 2015 |access-date=May 19, 2015}} making it the highest viewed and highest rated episode since the sixth season premiere. This episode brought up the part two average to 2.12 million viewers, and brought up the overall season seven average to 2.06 million viewers.

With Mad Men, Weiner and his creative team have "received critical acclaim for its historical authenticity and visual style" although opinions on Mad Men vary among people who worked in advertising during the 1960s.{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/wnet/tavissmiley/uncategorized/primer-matthew-weiner/ |title=PRIMER: Matthew Weiner |first=Carla |last=Amurao |date=March 21, 2012 |work=Tavis Smiley |publisher=PBS |access-date=March 26, 2012 |archive-date=March 17, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140317081732/http://www.pbs.org/wnet/tavissmiley/uncategorized/primer-matthew-weiner/ |url-status=live}} According to Robert Levinson, a consultant for Mad Men who worked at BBDO from 1960 to 1980, "what [Matthew Weiner] captured was so real. The drinking was commonplace, the smoking was constant, the relationships between the executives and the secretaries was exactly right". Jerry Della Femina, who worked as a copywriter in that era and later founded his own agency, said that the show is accurate in its depiction of "the smoking, the prejudice and the bigotry".

Allen Rosenshine, a copywriter who went on to lead BBDO, called the show a "total fabrication", saying that "if anybody talked to women the way these goons do, they'd have been out on their ass".{{cite news |last=Erikson |first=Chris |title=Remembering the days when a business lunch came in a highball glass |work=New York Post |date=August 27, 2007 |url=http://www.nypost.com/p/item_iLyPbsAQA5W6u122AUu2GJ |access-date=August 31, 2007 |archive-date=June 21, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100621002752/http://www.nypost.com/p/item_iLyPbsAQA5W6u122AUu2GJ |url-status=live}} George Lois, who worked at Doyle Dane Bernbach for a year, before starting his own ad agency in 1960, said:{{cite news |last=Lois |first=George|author-link=George Lois |date=March 24, 2012 |title=TV 'Mad Men' real? I don't think so |publisher=CNN |url=http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/24/opinion/lois-mad-men|access-date=March 26, 2012|archive-date=January 12, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130112074158/http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/24/opinion/lois-mad-men|url-status=live}}

Mad Men is nothing more than the fulfilment of every possible stereotype of the early 1960s bundled up nicely to convince consumers that the sort of morally repugnant behavior exhibited by its characters…is glamorous and vintage.… [U]nlike the TV 'Mad Men,' we worked full, exhausting, joyous days: pitching new business, creating ideas, "comping" them up, storyboarding them, selling them, photographing them, and directing commercials. And our only 'extracurricular activity' was chasing fly balls and dunking basketballs on our agency softball and basketball teams!

According to an analysis of the language used in Mad Men by Benjamin Schmidt, a visiting graduate fellow at the Cultural Observatory at Harvard University, the vocabulary and phrases used in the show are not all quite authentic to the period, despite attempts to use contemporary vocabulary. Using a computer program, he determined that the show uses relatively few words that are clearly anachronistic but that there are many words and phrases used that are far more common in modern speech, than in the speech of the era ("need to", "feel good about", "euthanize", etc). In aggregate these words and constructions give a misleading impression of the speech patterns of the time. He notes that the use of modern business language (leverage, signing bonus, etc.) unknown or little used at the time "creeps in with striking regularity."{{cite news |last=Schmidt |first=Benjamin |title=The Foreign Language of 'Mad Men' |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/03/the-foreign-language-of-mad-men/254668/ |access-date=June 20, 2012 |newspaper=The Atlantic |date=March 21, 2012 |archive-date=June 9, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120609085630/http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/03/the-foreign-language-of-mad-men/254668/ |url-status=live}}

Mad Men is widely considered one of the most influential shows in the medium's history and has had an enduring impact on modern television. It raised the profile of AMC, and it was the first series on basic cable to win the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series, winning a record four times, tied only with Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law, The West Wing and Game of Thrones for most wins in that category. Mad Men{{'}}s success allowed AMC to greenlight other series, such as Breaking Bad, and it also inspired several other networks to launch their own prestige drama series. As a result, many TV critics credit Mad Men and AMC with starting a new wave of Peak TV.{{cite web |url=http://grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/thought-experiment-what-if-hbo-had-picked-up-mad-men/ |title=Thought Experiment: What If HBO Had Picked Up 'Mad Men'? |website=Grantland |first=Sean |last=Fennessey |date=March 30, 2015 |access-date=April 6, 2015 |archive-date=April 7, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150407022009/http://grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/thought-experiment-what-if-hbo-had-picked-up-mad-men/ |url-status=live}}{{cite web |last=Saraiya |first=Sonia |title='Mad Men' at 10: The Last Great Drama of TV's Golden Age |website=Variety |date=July 18, 2017 |url=https://variety.com/2017/tv/columns/mad-men-turns-10-tv-last-great-drama-1202497573/ | access-date=August 23, 2023}}{{cite web |title=We Live In The Peak TV World 'Mad Men' Created 10 Years Ago |website=Uproxx |first=Alan |last=Sepinwall |date=July 19, 2017 |url=https://uproxx.com/sepinwall/mad-men-10th-anniversary-peak-tv/ | access-date=August 23, 2023}}{{cite web |title=Mad Men: The Drama Behind the Drama That Changed TV |website=TV Guide |date=March 19, 2015 |url=https://www.tvguidemagazine.com/mad-men-the-drama-behind-the-drama-that-changed-tv/ | access-date=August 23, 2023}} Many elements of the show were commended including its unique episode and season structures, subtle and atmospheric tone, exploration of feminism, attention to detail and its overall approach regarding history.{{cite magazine |title=The Time Machine: The History of Mad Men |magazine=TIME |first=James |last=Poniewozik |date=May 28, 2015 |url=https://time.com/mad-men-history/ | access-date=August 23, 2023}}{{cite web |last=James |first=Emily St. |title=Mad Men didn't change TV as much as you'd expect. It's time to fix that. |website=Vox |date=July 19, 2017 |url=https://www.vox.com/culture/2017/7/19/15987112/mad-men-10th-anniversary-legacy-history | access-date=August 23, 2023}}{{cite web |last=Tellier |first=Alexandra Le |title=See how the women of 'Mad Men' transformed on TV's most feminist show |website=Los Angeles Times |date=April 3, 2015 |url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/showtracker/la-et-tv-mad-men-women-feminist-timeline-20150401-htmlstory.html | access-date=August 23, 2023}}

Mad Men also inspired several other TV shows during its run. The 2009 TNT series Trust Me, which ran for one season, was set at a modern-day advertising agency; television critic Tom Shales called it a cross between Mad Men and another television show, Nip/Tuck. Two network television series that premiered in 2011, the short-lived The Playboy Club and the one-season Pan Am, both set in 1963, were frequently referred to as imitations of Mad Men.{{cite web |url=http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/tv/that_show_aCebcynpsqKBKihSFo0tsI |title=That '60s show |first=Maxine |last=Shen |work=New York Post |date=May 19, 2011 |access-date=September 29, 2012 |archive-date=October 24, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121024030612/http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/tv/that_show_aCebcynpsqKBKihSFo0tsI |url-status=live}}{{cite web |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2011-may-22-la-ca-fall-tv-mad-men-influence-20110522-story.html |title=Longing for a time when bad was good |first=Melissa |last=Maerz |work=Los Angeles Times |date=May 22, 2011 |access-date=September 29, 2012 |archive-date=November 7, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121107221030/http://articles.latimes.com/2011/may/22/entertainment/la-ca-fall-TV-mad-men-influence-20110522 |url-status=live}} The British TV drama The Hour, which also premiered in 2011, and is set in 1956, was also described as influenced by Mad Men.{{cite web |title='The Hour' Is Not the British 'Mad Men': It's Better |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2011/08/the-hour-is-not-the-british-mad-men-its-better/243741/ |date=August 17, 2011 |first=Alyssa |last=Rosenberg |work=The Atlantic |access-date=April 10, 2013 |archive-date=June 1, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130601195303/http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2011/08/the-hour-is-not-the-british-mad-men-its-better/243741/ |url-status=live}} The 2014 Syfy miniseries Ascension was described as "Mad Men in space".{{cite web |url=http://io9.com/the-stylish-first-trailer-for-syfys-mad-men-in-space-1641362857 |title=The Stylish First Trailer For Syfy's "Mad Men In Space" Show Ascension |first=Lauren |last=Davis |website=io9 |date=October 1, 2014 |access-date=December 7, 2014 |archive-date=January 27, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150127044430/http://io9.com/the-stylish-first-trailer-for-syfys-mad-men-in-space-1641362857 |url-status=live}} Several other shows have been compared to and said to have been influenced by Mad Men as well, including The Americans, Halt and Catch Fire, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Boardwalk Empire, and BoJack Horseman, amongst many others.{{cite web |last1=Reid |first1=Joe |last2=Ivie |first2=Devon |title=Good Girls Revolt and All the Other Shows That Tried to Be the Next Mad Men |website=Vulture |date=November 4, 2016 |url=https://www.vulture.com/2016/11/all-the-shows-that-tried-to-be-the-next-mad-men.html | access-date=August 23, 2023}}{{cite web |last=Raeside |first=Julia |title=The Marvellous Mrs Maisel: from the writer of Gilmore Girls, with brazen nods to Mad Men |website=The Guardian |date=March 16, 2017 |url=http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/mar/16/the-marvellous-mrs-maisel-from-the-writer-of-gilmore-girls-with-brazen-nods-to-mad-men | access-date=August 23, 2023}}{{cite web |title=BoJack Horseman's Creator on How a Washed-Up Cartoon Horse Is Like Don Draper |website=Slate Magazine |date=September 27, 2017 |url=https://slate.com/culture/2017/09/bojack-horseman-s-raphael-bob-waksberg-interviewed.html | access-date=August 23, 2023}} Don Draper's rendition of the Frank O'Hara poem "Mayakovsky" from Meditations in an Emergency, at the end of "For Those Who Think Young" (season two, episode one), led to the poet's work entering the top 50 sales on Amazon.com.{{cite news |title=Mad Men using Frank O'Hara's 'Meditations in an Emergency' boosts sales |work=Los Angeles Times |date=August 8, 2008 |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2008-aug-10-ca-amazon10-story.html |access-date=March 18, 2009 |first=Liesl |last=Bradner |archive-date=March 8, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090308110342/http://articles.latimes.com/2008/aug/10/entertainment/ca-amazon10 |url-status=live}}

Mad Men was credited with setting off a wave of renewed interest in the fashion and culture of the early 1960s. According to The Guardian in 2008, the show was responsible for a revival in men's suits, especially suits resembling those of that period, with higher waistbands and shorter jackets; as well as "everything from tortoise shell glasses to fedoras."{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/tvandradioblog/2008/aug/01/youdonthavetowatchmadmen |title=How Mad Men became a style guide |work=The Guardian |first=Graeme |last=Allister |date=August 1, 2008 |access-date=September 29, 2012 |archive-date=September 16, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150916211049/http://www.theguardian.com/culture/tvandradioblog/2008/aug/01/youdonthavetowatchmadmen |url-status=live}} According to the website BabyCenter, the show led to the name "Betty" soaring in popularity for baby girls in the United States in 2010.{{cite web |url=http://content.usatoday.com/communities/entertainment/post/2010/12/glee-and-mad-men-have-effect-on-top-baby-names-of-2010/1 |title='Glee' and 'Mad Men' influence Top Baby Names of 2010 |first=Ann |last=Oldenburg |work=USA Today |date=December 3, 2010 |access-date=September 29, 2012 |archive-date=October 11, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121011184624/http://content.usatoday.com/communities/entertainment/post/2010/12/glee-and-mad-men-have-effect-on-top-baby-names-of-2010/1 |url-status=live}} According to The Arizona Republic, a resurgence in interest for Mid-century modern furnishings and decor also coincided with the emergence of the show.{{cite web |url=https://www.azcentral.com/style/hfe/decor/20120427mad-men-inspires-midcentury-modern-decor-resurgence |title='Mad Men' inspires Midcentury Modern decor resurgence |work=The Arizona Republic |first=Kim |last=Cook |date=April 27, 2012 |access-date=October 30, 2014}} New York Times theater critic Ben Brantley wrote in 2011 that the success of Mad Men had turned "the booze-guzzling, chain-smoking, babe-chasing 1960s" into "Broadway's decade du jour", citing three 1960s-set musicals that had appeared on Broadway in the past year: revivals of Promises, Promises and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, and a new musical, Catch Me If You Can.{{cite web |url=http://theater.nytimes.com/2011/04/11/theater/reviews/catch-me-if-you-can-at-neil-simon-theater-review.html |title=Scamming as Fast as He Can |first=Ben |last=Brantley |work=The New York Times |date=April 10, 2011 |access-date=September 29, 2012 |archive-date=June 30, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120630072951/http://theater.nytimes.com/2011/04/11/theater/reviews/catch-me-if-you-can-at-neil-simon-theater-review.html |url-status=live}} Brantley also wrote, "I'm presuming that Mad Men is the reason this Promises, Promises is set not in the late '60s, as the original was, but in 1962."{{cite web |url=http://theater.nytimes.com/2010/04/26/theater/reviews/26promises.html |title=Back in the '60s: Let's Tryst Again |first=Ben |last=Brantley |work=The New York Times |date=April 26, 2010 |access-date=September 29, 2012 |archive-date=June 24, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120624175311/http://theater.nytimes.com/2010/04/26/theater/reviews/26promises.html |url-status=live}}

The appearance of Christina Hendricks as office manager Joan, is said to have sparked a renewed interest in a voluptuous look for women and to be partly responsible for, among other things, a 10 percent increase in breast augmentation in the United Kingdom in 2010.{{cite web |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/8290407/Mad-Men-star-Christina-Hendricks-sparks-rush-for-breast-implants.html |title=Mad Men star Christina Hendricks sparks rush for breast implants |first=Adam |last=Lusher |work=The Daily Telegraph |date=January 30, 2011 |access-date=September 29, 2012 |archive-date=December 27, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121227234232/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/8290407/Mad-Men-star-Christina-Hendricks-sparks-rush-for-breast-implants.html |url-status=dead}}

The nostalgia for the fashions and social norms of the early 1960s engendered by Mad Men was criticized by some commentators. Amy Benfer, writing in 2009 for Salon, asked, "But isn't it a little odd that a show that, among other things, warns about the dangers of seeing the past in too amber a light has spawned an industry devoted to fetishizing nostalgia for that same flawed past?"{{cite news |last=Benfer |first=Amy |title='Mad Men' minus the racist, sexist parts |date=September 23, 2009 |work=Salon |url=http://www.salon.com/2009/09/23/mad_men_oprah/ |access-date=November 14, 2010 |archive-date=June 22, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120622061120/http://www.salon.com/2009/09/23/mad_men_oprah/ |url-status=live}}

In the 2014 State of the Union Address, President Barack Obama, in speaking out against unequal pay for women, said "It's time to do away with workplace policies that belong in a Mad Men episode." Matthew Weiner released a statement saying that he "supports the president", and that he was "honored that our show is part of a much-needed national conversation".{{cite magazine |url=https://swampland.time.com/2014/01/28/state-of-the-union-2014-mad-men-matt-weiner/ |title=Mad Men Creator 'Honored' Obama Mentioned Show in State of the Union |magazine=Time |first=Alex |last=Fitzpatrick |date=January 28, 2014 |access-date=February 18, 2014 |archive-date=March 1, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140301191510/http://swampland.time.com/2014/01/28/state-of-the-union-2014-mad-men-matt-weiner/ |url-status=live}} In 2015, a sculpture of a bench dedicated to Mad Men featuring the image of Don Draper from the opening credit sequence was unveiled in front of the Time-Life Building.{{cite web |url=https://www.usnews.com/news/entertainment/articles/2015/03/23/mad-men-sculpture-unveiled-as-nyc-marks-shows-last-season |title=Selfie Spot for 'Mad Men' Fans |publisher=U.S. News & World Report |first=Beth J. |last=Harpaz |date=March 23, 2015 |access-date=March 30, 2015 |archive-date=April 2, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402171625/http://www.usnews.com/news/entertainment/articles/2015/03/23/mad-men-sculpture-unveiled-as-nyc-marks-shows-last-season |url-status=live}}

{{Main|List of awards and nominations received by Mad Men{{!}}List of awards and nominations received by Mad Men}}

File:Matthew Weiner and the cast of Mad Men at the 67th Annual Peabody Awards.jpg

Mad Men was the recipient of many nominations and awards from various organizations, including

the American Film Institute, Emmys and Creative Arts Emmys from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, a Peabody Award{{cite web |url=http://www.peabodyawards.com/award-profile/mad-men |title=Mad Men (American Movie Classics) |publisher=The Peabody Awards |date=May 2008 |access-date=September 23, 2014 |archive-date=September 28, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140928051108/http://www.peabodyawards.com/award-profile/mad-men |url-status=live}} from the Peabody Board at the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, Satellite Awards from the International Press Academy, and British Academy Television Awards from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Numerous nominations and award were also received from guilds and societies such as the Art Directors Guild, Casting Society of America, Cinema Audio Society, Costume Designers Guild, Directors Guild of America, Motion Picture Sound Editors, Producers Guild of America, Screen Actors Guild, Television Critics Association, and Writers Guild of America.

Award highlights include winning the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series four times, for each of its first four seasons; its fourth win tied the record for serial dramas set earlier by Hill Street Blues (1981–84), L.A. Law (1987, 1989–91), and The West Wing (2000–03).{{cite web |url=http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/awards/2011/08/mad-men-may-tie-record-as-emmys-drama-series-champ.html |title=Mad Men may tie record as Emmy's drama series champ |date=August 31, 2011 |work=Awards Tracker (blog) |publisher=Los Angeles Times |first=Tom |last=O'Neil |access-date=October 20, 2011 |archive-date=January 2, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120102160925/http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/awards/2011/08/mad-men-may-tie-record-as-emmys-drama-series-champ.html |url-status=live}} In 2012 Mad Men set a record for the most Emmy nominations, 17, without winning.{{cite news |url=https://deadline.com/2012/09/2012-primetime-emmys-mad-men-historic-shutout-best-drama-series-342099/ |title=2012 Primetime Emmys: 'Mad Men's Historic Shutout |work=Deadline |date=September 23, 2012 |access-date=September 25, 2012 |author=Andreeva, Nellie |archive-date=September 25, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120925234522/http://www.deadline.com/2012/09/2012-primetime-emmys-mad-men-historic-shutout-best-drama-series/ |url-status=live}} A 2015 The Hollywood Reporter survey of 2,800 actors, producers, directors, and other industry people named it as their #9 favorite show.{{Cite news |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lists/best-tv-shows-ever-top-819499/item/friends-hollywoods-100-favorite-tv-821361 |title=Hollywood's 100 Favorite TV Shows |date=September 16, 2015 |work=The Hollywood Reporter |access-date=July 17, 2019 |language=en |archive-date=July 17, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190717030112/https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lists/best-tv-shows-ever-top-819499/item/friends-hollywoods-100-favorite-tv-821361 |url-status=live}}

In promotions for the series, AMC aired commercials and a behind-the-scenes documentary on the making of Mad Men before its premiere. The commercials mostly show the one (usually brief) sex scene from each episode of the season. The commercials, as well as the documentary, featured the song "You Know I'm No Good" by Amy Winehouse. The documentary, in addition to trailers and sneak peeks of upcoming episodes, were released on the official AMC website. Mad Men was also made available at the iTunes Store on July 20, 2007, along with the "making of" documentary.{{cite press release |title=AMC Announces Original Drama Series Mad Men To Launch on iTunes |publisher=AMC |date=July 19, 2007 |url=http://www.thefutoncritic.com/news/2007/07/19/amc-announces-original-drama-series-mad-men-to-launch-on-itunes-24991/20070719amc01/ |access-date=January 31, 2012}}

For the second season, AMC undertook the largest marketing campaign it had ever launched, intending to reflect the "cinematic quality" of the series.{{cite press release |title=AMCTV.com Launches Comprehensive Digital Marketing Campaign for Season Two of Mad Men |publisher=AMC Networks |date=June 30, 2008 |url=http://www.amcnetworks.com/press-releases/amctv-com-launches-comprehensive-digital-marketing-campaign-for-season-two-of-mad-men |access-date=January 31, 2012 |archive-date=October 29, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171029174436/http://www.amcnetworks.com/press-releases/amctv-com-launches-comprehensive-digital-marketing-campaign-for-season-two-of-mad-men |url-status=live}} The Grand Central Terminal subway shuttle to Times Square was decorated with life-size posters of Jon Hamm as Don Draper, and quotes from the first season. Inside Grand Central, groups of people dressed in period clothing would hand out "Sterling Cooper" business cards to promote the July 27 season premiere. Window displays were arranged at 14 Bloomingdale's stores for exhibition throughout July, and a 45' by 100' wallscape was posted at the corner of Hollywood and Highland in downtown Hollywood. Television commercials on various cable and local networks, full-page print ads, and a 30-second trailer in Landmark Theaters throughout July were also run in promotion of the series. Television promotions for the second season featured the song "The Truth" by Handsome Boy Modeling School.[http://coolspotters.com/songs/the-truth-by-handsome-boy-modeling-school/and/tv-shows/mad-men#page-1 The Truth by Handsome Boy Modeling School and Mad Men] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111004092025/http://coolspotters.com/songs/the-truth-by-handsome-boy-modeling-school/and/tv-shows/mad-men#page-1 |date=October 4, 2011 }}, Coolspotters

The advertising campaign for the fifth season of Mad Men was conceived by the network as a way to promote the series after the 17-month break between seasons. A teaser campaign began in which posters, using images of the enigmatic "falling man" from the opening credits, were spread out on buildings in New York and Los Angeles. The New York Times ran a story about the image's similarity to the 9/11 falling man image. Some 9/11 victims' family members accused the campaign of being insensitive. However, one family member accused the paper of creating a "kerfuffle where none exists", as well as using 9/11 family members to "write a story that refers only to your own feelings". AMC responded with a statement that said, "The image of Don Draper tumbling through space has been used since the show began in 2007 to represent a man whose life is in turmoil. The image used in the campaign is intended to serve as a metaphor for what is happening in Don Draper's fictional life and in no way references actual events."{{cite web |url=http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/28/a-season-premiere-a-falling-man-and-memories-of-911/ |title=A Season Premiere, a Falling Man, and Memories of 9/11 |work=The New York Times |date=February 28, 2012 |access-date=February 29, 2012 |author=Dunlap, David W. |archive-date=February 29, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120229092533/http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/28/a-season-premiere-a-falling-man-and-memories-of-911/ |url-status=live}}

The advertising campaign also included the use of posters that proclaimed, "Adultery Is Back." The Atlantic Wire criticized the AMC campaign, saying "Not that we're some creaky old traditionalists who value monogamy above all else, but making that of all things the selling point for a brilliant, beautiful show seems a little silly."{{cite web |url=http://www.theatlanticwire.com/entertainment/2012/02/adultery-advertisings-hottest-trend/48290/ |title=Adultery is Advertising's Hottest Trend |work=The Atlantic Wire |date=February 3, 2012 |access-date=February 29, 2012 |author=Lawson, Richard |archive-date=March 9, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120309223626/http://www.theatlanticwire.com/entertainment/2012/02/adultery-advertisings-hottest-trend/48290/ |url-status=live}}

Promotion for Seasons 4 and 5 saw Mad Men and AMC partnering with Banana Republic for the Mad Men Casting Call, in which users submit photos of themselves in Mad Men style and one winner receives the opportunity for a walk-on role in an upcoming season.{{cite web |url=http://madmencastingcall.amctv.com/ |title=Mad Men Casting Call |publisher=AMC |access-date=September 15, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111001133023/http://madmencastingcall.amctv.com/ |archive-date=October 1, 2011}} Promotion for Seasons 3 and 4 included "Mad Men Yourself", an interactive game in which the user can choose clothing and accessories for an avatar similar to the appearance of Mad Men characters, drawn in the sixties-inspired style of illustrator Dyna Moe.{{cite web |url=http://www.amctv.com/madmenyourself/ |title=Mad Men Yourself |publisher=AMC |access-date=August 11, 2011 |archive-date=August 9, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110809172744/http://www.amctv.com/madmenyourself/ |url-status=live}} "Mad Men Cocktail Culture" was also featured, an iPhone app that challenges users to create the perfect drink as featured in Mad Men episodes.{{cite web |url=http://www.amctv.com/shows/mad-men/iphone |title=Mad Men cocktail Culture |publisher=AMC |access-date=August 11, 2011 |archive-date=August 3, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110803210530/http://www.amctv.com/shows/mad-men/iphone |url-status=live}} Another interactive game launched prior to Season 3, the "Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce Job Interview", allowed users to answer questions based on various scenarios and then offered them a position in the Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce office.{{cite web |url=http://www.amctv.com/shows/mad-men/job-interview |title=Mad Men Job Interview |publisher=AMC |access-date=August 11, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110813202715/http://www.amctv.com/shows/mad-men/job-interview |archive-date=August 13, 2011}} Season 3 also included "Which Mad Man Are You?", an interactive game in which users could find out which Mad Men character they were most like based on their answers to questions about various work and life situations.{{cite web |url=http://www.amctv.com/shows/mad-men/which-mad-men-are-you |title=Which Mad Men Are You? |publisher=AMC |access-date=August 11, 2011 |archive-date=August 3, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110803145912/http://www.amctv.com/shows/mad-men/which-mad-men-are-you |url-status=live}} Users can take trivia quizzes based on the years in which the Mad Men episodes take place{{cite web |url=http://polls.amctv.com//chart/data/2736-question-1.html |title=Mad Men 1960 Trivia Quiz |publisher=AMC |access-date=August 11, 2011 |archive-date=August 30, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110830153339/http://polls.amctv.com/chart/data/2736-question-1.html |url-status=live}} and find recipes for 1960s-era drinks on the Mad Men Cocktail Guide.{{cite web |url=http://www.amctv.com/shows/mad-men/cocktail-guide |title=Mad Men Cocktail Guide |publisher=AMC |access-date=August 11, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110807012610/http://www.amctv.com/shows/mad-men/cocktail-guide |archive-date=August 7, 2011}} AMC's Mad Men website also features exclusive sneak peek and behind the scenes videos, episodic and behind-the-scenes photo galleries, episode and character guides, a blog, and a community forum.

Inspired by the iconic Zippo brand, the DVD box set of the first season of Mad Men was designed like a flip-open Zippo lighter; Zippo subsequently developed two designs of lighters with "Mad Men" logos to be sold at the company headquarters and online.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/23/business/media/23adcol.html |title=Madison Avenue Likes What It Sees in the Mirror |last=Elliott |first=Stuart |date=June 30, 2008 |work=The New York Times |access-date=July 19, 2008 |archive-date=December 9, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081209204309/http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/23/business/media/23adcol.html |url-status=live}} The DVD box set, as well as a Blu-ray disc set, was released July 1, 2008; it features a total of 23 audio commentaries on the season's 13 episodes from various members of the cast and crew.{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/artsandliving/movies/features/bonus-points/070108.html |title=Good 'Men,' With More Than a Few Extras |last=Chaney |first=Jen |date=July 1, 2008 |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=July 19, 2008 |archive-date=November 3, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111103104333/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/artsandliving/movies/features/bonus-points/070108.html |url-status=live}}

For the third season, the clothing store Banana Republic partnered with Mad Men to create window displays at its U.S. stores, showing clothing inspired by the fashion of the show. The store also ran a "casting call" competition, in which participants were asked to mail photos of themselves in period fashion for a chance at a walk-on part in the show;{{cite web |url=http://blogs.amctv.com/mad-men/2010/07/mad-men-casting-call-enter-now.php |title=Banana Republic's Mad Men Casting Call Could Land You a Walk-on Role in Season 5 |publisher=AMC |date=July 21, 2010 |access-date=September 29, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120412123222/http://blogs.amctv.com/mad-men/2010/07/mad-men-casting-call-enter-now.php |archive-date=April 12, 2012}} two winners were announced in October 2010.{{cite web |url=http://blogs.amctv.com/mad-men/2010/10/banana-republic-casting-call-winners.php |title=Meet the Winners of the Banana Republic Mad Men Casting Call |publisher=AMC |first=Ashley |last=Shaw |date=October 29, 2010 |access-date=September 29, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120603155400/http://blogs.amctv.com/mad-men/2010/10/banana-republic-casting-call-winners.php |archive-date=June 3, 2012}}

Another clothing promotion from the series's third season includes a "Mad-Men Edition" suit offered by American clothing retailer Brooks Brothers.{{Cite news |last=Tschorn |first=Adam |title=Brooks Bros. Dapper Draper Caper: Selling Limited 'Mad Men' suits |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |date=October 13, 2009 |url=http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/alltherage/2009/10/brooks-brothers-introduces-limited-edition-mad-men-suit-don-draper-roger-sterling.html |access-date=January 21, 2010 |archive-date=April 5, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100405090312/http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/alltherage/2009/10/brooks-brothers-introduces-limited-edition-mad-men-suit-don-draper-roger-sterling.html |url-status=live}} The suit is designed by the show's costume designer, Janie Bryant, and is based on an actual style sold by Brooks Brothers in the early 1960s.

In spring 2010, Mattel released a series of limited-edition collectible Barbie and Ken dolls based on the characters Don and Betty Draper, Joan Holloway, and Roger Sterling.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/10/business/media/10adco.html |title='Mad Men' Dolls in a Barbie World, but the Cocktails Must Stay Behind |last=Elliott |first=Stuart |date=March 9, 2010 |work=The New York Times |access-date=June 20, 2010 |location=New York City |archive-date=June 15, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100615132810/http://www.nytimes.com//2010//03//10//business//media//10adco.html |url-status=live}}

The fourth season saw the announcement of a collaboration between Janie Bryant and Californian-based company, Nailtini, to produce a limited-edition line of Mad Men nail polish. The four shades are entitled Bourbon Satin, French 75, Deauville and Stinger and are reported to have been inspired by the fabrics used to make cocktail dresses in the 1960s. The Mad Men nail polish line went on sale in the U.S. in late 2010.{{cite news |url=http://www.vogue.co.uk/beauty/2010/08/05/janie-bryant-mad-men-nail-polish-line |title=Mad Men Nails |last=Forrester |first=Sharon |date=August 5, 2010 |publisher=Vogue.co.uk |location=London, UK |access-date=February 4, 2012 |archive-date=May 14, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120514083152/http://www.vogue.co.uk/beauty/2010/08/05/janie-bryant-mad-men-nail-polish-line |url-status=live}}

Mad Men featured a significant number of products and brands that existed both in the 1960s and at the time of airing, many of them shown as advertising clients, including Lucky Strike, Bethlehem Steel, Heineken, Volkswagen, Cadillac, Playtex, Chanel, Spam, Utz, Maidenform, Gillette, American Airlines and Clearasil. This led to widespread speculation that many or all of the products and brands on the show were the result of paid product placement.{{cite web |url=http://www.metronews.ca/toronto/scene/article/112671 |title=Mad Men's product placement museum |publisher=Metronews.ca |author=Rick McGinnis |date=September 16, 2008 |access-date=October 21, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110114220745/http://www.metronews.ca/toronto/scene/article/112671 |archive-date=January 14, 2011}} In fact, nearly all real products featured were included solely for purposes of realism, with no product placement deals behind them. Showrunner Matthew Weiner said in an interview: "There is very little [product placement], and it is an illusion that is propagated by the network to try and get more business. It never works out ... Literally I've named four [paid placements] in four seasons and there have probably been a hundred products on the show. Half of them are made up, no one's paying to be on the show." According to Weiner, the companies that did pay for product placement are Jack Daniel's, Heineken, Unilever, and Hilton, though the last was only a payment of gratitude after a storyline involving Hilton had already aired.{{cite video |title=Matthew Weiner Interview |series=Archive of American Television |url=http://www.emmytvlegends.org/interviews/people/matthew-weiner |publisher=Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation |date=November 12, 2010 |access-date=January 4, 2012 |time=part 6 of 7 32:30, 41:33}}

Jack Daniel's was mentioned by name in the fifth episode. Soon afterward, the consumer-rights activist group Commercial Alert filed a complaint with the United States Distilled Spirits Council alleging that Jack Daniel's was violating liquor advertising standards since the show features "depictions of overt sexual activity" as well as irresponsible intoxication.{{cite news |last=Smith |first=Lynn |title='Mad Men' and Jack Daniel's: Bad mix? |work=Los Angeles Times |date=June 21, 2007 |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-jun-21-fi-jack21-story.html |access-date=July 21, 2007 |archive-date=October 13, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081013025623/http://articles.latimes.com/2007/jun/21/business/fi-jack21 |url-status=live}}

Heineken is seen in the show as a client seeking to bring its beer to the attention of American consumers. Heineken was also the sole advertiser for the U.S. premiere of the last episode of Season 2, which featured only one commercial.{{cite news |title=Mad Men is Back and So is Product Placement |url=https://money.cnn.com/galleries/2010/fortune/1007/gallery.mad_men_products.fortune/6.html |work=CNN Money |date=July 27, 2010 |access-date=December 23, 2011 |archive-date=August 12, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110812073130/http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2010/fortune/1007/gallery.mad_men_products.fortune/6.html |url-status=live}}

During the fourth season, Unilever created a series of six retro commercials that were aired during the show in the United States. The ads are set at the fictional Smith Winter Mitchell advertising agency and take place during the same time period as Mad Men. The products discussed in the ads are Dove, Breyers, Hellmann's, Klondike, Suave, and Vaseline.{{cite news |title=Behind the scenes of Unilever's retro 'Mad Men' ads |first=Kona |last=Gallagher |url=http://www.aoltv.com/2010/09/03/behind-the-scenes-of-unilevers-retro-mad-men-ads/ |publisher=AOL TV |date=September 3, 2010 |access-date=November 15, 2010 |archive-date=May 5, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120505065546/http://www.aoltv.com/2010/09/03/behind-the-scenes-of-unilevers-retro-mad-men-ads/ |url-status=live}}{{YouTube|user=smithwinter|Smith Winter Mitchell Agency}}

Weiner stated that he was not opposed to product placement, if it can increase a show's budget or eliminate advertising breaks. However, he found the product placement for Mad Men to be a frustrating experience: he called the Heineken deal "a disaster" because Heineken's legal department objected to depictions of irresponsible drinking in the show, and he said he was "disgusted" by the Unilever commercials, which were filmed on the Mad Men set against his will. Because of these frustrations, Weiner stated in 2012 that he would "never again" agree to product placement for Mad Men.{{cite video |title=Matthew Weiner Interview |series=Archive of American Television |url=http://www.emmytvlegends.org/interviews/people/matthew-weiner |publisher=Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation |date=November 12, 2010 |access-date=January 4, 2012 |time=part 6 of 7 38:00}}

In two cases, the show made use of real ads or ad slogans; these happened to be the first and last ads shown on Mad Men. In the first episode, Don Draper comes up with the slogan "It's Toasted" for Lucky Strike; this was a real slogan used by the brand, albeit one that in real life was coined in 1917. In the series finale, it is implied that Don created the famous 1971 Coca-Cola commercial known as "Hilltop".{{cite web |url=http://adage.com/article/special-report-mad-men/mad-men-series-finale-recap-downward-facing-don/298670/ |title='Mad Men' Series Finale Recap: Downward Facing Don What It Took for Don Draper to Finally Create a Breakthrough Ad |first=Matthew |last=Creamer |date=May 18, 2015 |work=Advertising Age |access-date=July 23, 2016 |archive-date=June 15, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160615070430/http://adage.com/article/special-report-mad-men/mad-men-series-finale-recap-downward-facing-don/298670/ |url-status=live}} The series did not have to pay for the use of this ad.{{cite web |url=http://www.people.com/article/mad-men-didnt-pay-for-iconic-coke-ad-in-series-finale |title=Mad Men Did Not Pay to Use Iconic Coca-Cola Ad in Series Finale |work=People |first=Emily |last=Strohm |date=May 19, 2015 |access-date=June 20, 2016 |archive-date=August 29, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160829200751/http://www.people.com/article/mad-men-didnt-pay-for-iconic-coke-ad-in-series-finale |url-status=live}} Other ads that appeared on the show have some similarities to actual ads from the time.{{cite web |url=http://www.businessinsider.com/mad-men-v-reality-compare-don-drapers-ads-with-those-that-actually-ran-in-the-1960s-2012-3?op=1&IR=T |title=Reality: Compare Don Draper's Ads With Those That Actually Ran In The 1960s |first=Mallory |last=Russell |date=March 20, 2012 |work=Business Insider |access-date=July 23, 2016 |archive-date=August 16, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160816172100/http://www.businessinsider.com/mad-men-v-reality-compare-don-drapers-ads-with-those-that-actually-ran-in-the-1960s-2012-3?op=1&IR=T |url-status=live}}

In 2017, Heinz ran an advertising campaign that used ads created for the brand by Don Draper in a 2013 episode.{{cite news |last1=Wohl |first1=Jessica |title=Heinz Taps Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce for Campaign (Yes, Really) |url=http://adage.com/article/cmo-strategy/heinz-taps-sterling-cooper-draper-pryce-campaign/308261/ |access-date=March 20, 2017 |work=Advertising Age |date=March 13, 2017 |archive-date=March 20, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170320233202/http://adage.com/article/cmo-strategy/heinz-taps-sterling-cooper-draper-pryce-campaign/308261/ |url-status=live}}

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• [https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/07/16/arts/television/20100718-madmen-timeline.html Seeing History in Mad Men], an interactive timeline as of 2010 by The New York Times
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