All of us here at Barrel Maker really love Mad Men, and too often at night I’ll sit up and watch it while thinking about the whole concept of advertising. I like to get to work really early sometimes to brainstorm ideas with a fresh cup of coffee, and try to work out all of my thoughts into a way that translates into expanding our business. We were first a little conflicted a few years ago about whether to advertise our business, or to just continue to grow only by word of mouth. But eventually we sold out. So we thought it might be a fun throwback to show you when we finally threw some money into the machine and made our first commercial in 2011. We didn’t want to make it too boring so while we talked a little bit about screen printing, we mostly focused on serial killing – in the style of a cheesy 80s horror movie.
I remember when we first were planning it we thought it was going to be a big struggle. The production company said they’d only do a “corporate video” using that boring formula of a Long Shot, Pan around the shop, and a voiceover of how great of a company we are – blah blah blah. But luckily, with a little sweet talk they came around.
More importantly, I’ve also been thinking a lot lately about some of the greatest campy commercials in Chicago history. There’s a few that really stand out to us that we want to share. Does anyone remember the Eagleman? How can we top this? He lays eggs with insurance rates printed on them, and then throws them at people.
We also can’t forget the smooth talkin’ Empire man. He seems like he should be in a red velvet duster sipping on a glass of bourbon neat while sitting on that chaise lounge. Maybe one day our commercials will come close to competing with these. But until then, we’re content just to try.