Newsweek To Go 1960s For Mad Men Premiere

When Mad Men returns on March 25th, Newsweek will be going back in time to the 1960s. According to AdAge, the magazine will (hopefully) even be running the same ads... except for tobacco ads, which the magazine no longer accepts.

Editor Tina Brown says she came up with the idea with showrunner Matthew Weiner, noting, "Newsweek was very much on the cultural forefront at the time of the show. It covered the events that are so much of the background for the show's drama—the burgeoning civil rights movement, the women's rights movement, the Vietnam War. So it seemed like a wonderful marriage in a sense to take that and apply it to the magazine, to make the magazine an homage to the period."

However, back then Brown would have never been able to become editor, as she explains, during that time women were typically doing research for the "swaggering male writers."

The Mad Men issue will be dated March 19th, and it will include a cover story on the series and a feature on the role of advertising in U.S. culture. But we sort of wish AMC would put that ad budget towards some vintage subways—those are fun.

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By Jen Carlson in Arts & Entertainment on January 12, 2012 5:21 PM

Comments [rss]

Politburo

I like how the editor basically admits Newsweek is irrelevant today..

erinnyc

This sounds like tons of fun to me. I realize that my perspective has been thrown askew by my longing for new Mad Men episodes. However, there is a huge opportunity here for a mind-blowing quick glance back at how far we have advanced, as a society, in a short span of time. It is unfortunate that Newsweek won't feature the ciggie ads, because readers would certainly be taken aback by seeing them. I hope Weiner will tweek Brown's newshound nose with enough accurate nostalgia to make the pairing not just a vehicle to promote either person's projects individually, but to really bring us a great history lesson that sheds light on our futures.

cr17

I better see girdles galore and ads for Playtex bras or I'm not buying it.

colonelcasey

Back when people still read Newsweek? They used to be good but I dropped them because they stopped producing thoughtful articles that actually made you think a bit.

SonnyBobiche

Brown forgot to add that back then Newsweek would never do something like this because it was a respectable magazine not a gossipy hard print version of the Huffington Post.