Mad Men Yourself

Yesterday marked ten years since the debut of Mad Men. Of course, no history of Mad Men would be complete without mentioning "Mad Men Yourself". For those of you who might not be familiar with "Mad Men Yourself", it was essentially an avatar generator. Using "Mad Men Yourself" fans could create their very own Mad Men avatars, down to choosing Sixties-style clothing and accessories for those avatars. What is more, one could place one's avatars in various places, such as the offices of Sterling Cooper, the avatar's home, a bar, an airport, and so on.

"Mad Men Yourself" was launched in 2009 as part of the promotion for the third season of the show. It was created by the digital marketing company Deep Focus. The designs for the avatars for "Mad Men Yourself" were created by Dyna Moe, an illustrator and comedienne whose style draws  heavily upon the Sixties. "Mad Men Yourself" proved to be a hit upon its launch, with thousands of Mad Men fans (myself included) using it to design their own avatars. It received coverage in a good many news outlets, including AdWeek, Entertainment Weekly, In Style, People, The New York Post, NPR, TV Guide, The Washington Post, and many others. In 2011 "Mad Men Yourself" was nominated for the Webby Award for Interactive Advertising.

"Mad Men Yourself" would be updated every season, adding new styles of clothing to reflect the changing fashions of the Sixties. A good number of Mad Men fans then updated their avatars on a yearly basis and some even more often, changing their looks to reflect the current year in which the current season of Mad Men took place. Not surprisingly, many fans use their "Mad Men Yourself" avatars as their profile pictures on such social media sites as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and so on to this day. Sadly, "Mad Men Yourself" appears to no longer be available. I'm not sure when AMC shut it down, but it must not have been long after Mad Men's final episode in 2015.

I have to confess that I was one of those fans who updated his "Mad Men Yourself" avatar fairly often. Below are the "full body" pictures of my avatar. I have arranged them in chronological order, from the first to the last.