How Don Draper would pitch lemonade

May 11, 2012 by Kate Franzman

I don't care how cool or entitled you think you are - If you pass a lemonade stand, you buy lemonade.

— Don Draper (@TotalDraperMove) March 27, 2012

The above tweet, from a parody Don Draper Twitter account, really does sound like something the "real" Don Draper would say.

It's just lemonade. Why would Don, a jaded, cynical Madison Avenue ad guy, even care? It all comes back to emotion. Don, like most of us, has a deeper connection to what lemonade represents. An emotional connection.

"Nostalgia literally means the pain from an old wound. It’s a twinge in your heart far more powerful than memory alone."

We've seen Don give his clients the warm-fuzzies numerous times when pitching a new ad concept. He knows a product is more than the sum of its parts. Women aren’t looking for a new shade of lipstick, they want to feel unique. People aren’t buying an airline ticket, they're buying an adventure.

So how would we present a campaign for lemonade, in true Don Draper style? We'd use visuals (like in our "Lemonade" Pinterest board below) to show why lemonade is more than just a glass of lemony sugar water. It brings us back to our childhood. A time of innocence.

We'd go straight for the heart strings, using visuals depicting bare feet in the grass, family picnics, popsicles, and fireworks at dusk to tap into those nostalgic feelings.

Emotion is a powerful thing. So powerful, in fact, people are willing to pay big bucks for it, especially in our internet-driven world. Don understands that to market effectively means to connect with people.

You can apply this concept when marketing a brand or product: share a new idea, add emotion to the mix, and top it off with passion.

Which ad campaigns stir your emotions? How do they do it?

Mad Men image credits: amctv.com

  Tweet