1969: More Ads from the Mad Men Era

In the spring of 1969 Merrill Lynch joined the rush to promote hot new go-go stocks:

It used to be that practically all you needed to sniff out a growth stock was a good nose for technology. Xerox smelled good to some people. Polaroid smelled good to others. And sure enough, both rose higher than a soufflé at Pavillon.

Young and small was the way to go, Merrill Lynch figured, because "we wanted companies that could show dramatic gains in earnings. That’s a lot easier for Davids than for Goliaths."

Alas, go-go shares were about to collapse. Investors soon decided the only trustworthy stocks were the Goliaths, the Nifty Fifty.

US Trust must have sensed market uncertainty, for it reran one of its classic ads. Could any headline be more timeless?

Instead of spotlighting an affluent adult as usual, this Chemical ad features a kid. In current dollars the lucky lad's trust is worth way over $1 million. Would an ad calling attention to that much youthful good fortune prove problematic today? 

Marketing Wall Street to Mad Men

As Mad Men begins its last season (actually, its penultimate half season) brush up on the era with three ads from April, 1969.

By 1969 growth stocks had become a craze. So-called Gunslingers frantically traded speculative go-go stocks, creating avalanches of paper that overwhelmed brokers' back offices. Merrill Lynch ran this apologetic ad. "Paperwork, we've got it …. And, quite frankly, service problems, too."

The surge in growth stocks reflected real economic progress. Many a Salaried Man, including those in advertising and network TV, went from entry-level affluent to investment-management prospect. Merrill Anderson produced this ad for U.S. Trust, featuring a clever John Northcross illustration.

Not everyone approved of members of the Greatest Generation who became salaried men. Where was their get up and go, their entreprenurial spirit? Happily, many did launch businesses and some succeeded beyond their expectations. They were the target market for this Chemical Bank ad:

1968: End of an Investment Era

Mad Men resumes today. Even the Brits are excited. Reliable sources say the new shows pick up the story in 1968.

So far, the turmoil of the 1960s has barely touched Mad Men. That's fairly true to life. If your kids hadn't turned hippie and you didn't have to dodge the draft, 1968 might have left you unscathed. Certainly the prototype wealthy man and wealthy woman in these 1968 Chemical ads look as Old Money as ever.

Nevertheless, for the stock market the end was nigh.

 In 1968, the stock market had been rising, with only minor interruptions, for two decades, and the last recession, in 1961, was a distant memory. Many hot initial public offerings doubled the first day they traded. American households had a record 23.7 percent of their assets in stocks -- a figure not exceeded until 1998, when it hit 24.3 percent. (In 1978, after a brutal bear market, the figure was down to 8.5 percent.)

Floyd Norris included that description in his timely 1999 NY Times column, 1968 Redux. Not until 1982 would another great Bull Market begin – and by then, investors had taken the worst beating, after taking inflation into account, since the Great Depression.