Dive Summary:
- On Sunday's sixth season Mad Men finale, Hershey's steals the show as ad man Don Draper scoffs at the idea of the now-iconic chocolate brand holding auditions for an advertising agency in 1968.
- Until that point, Hershey had never run an advertising campaign in its approximately 70-year history because they were "against doing any kind of large-scale advertising" and "they didn't have to do any," according to Shawn Zupp, an advertising executive at Ogilvy and Mather, the New York City agency handling Hershey's advertising.
- Zupp said Hershey's was essentially pushed into advertising—with its first national campaign appearing in 1969—by a massive Mars/M&M campaign in the late 1960s.
- For more, here are two articles detailing Hershey's exact role in the episode and how it came about. (Warning: articles contain spoilers.)
From the article:
... Call it the candy bar with a cameo role that managed to steal this season’s final episode of the 1960s advertising industry drama, Mad Men. Troubled and mysterious main character Don Draper finally gets real -- pouring his heart out over a Hershey’s bar.
Despite the melodrama, it turns out Hollywood got it right when it comes to telling the story of Hershey’s reluctant but effective initial national advertising campaign. For 70-some years, Hershey’s didn’t do any national advertising -- period. It didn’t need to. ...