Product Placement

When I watched The Sopranos I consumed the entire series in a two-month binge on DVD. I started to feel like I was one of the characters on the show. Well, with Mad Men I feel the same way but it’s because they’re telling me I’m part of the show. In an episode from season three, Joan’s dweeb of a husband prods her into taking out her accordion and entertaining their dinner guests. That’s an obvious reference to me and my love of the accordion. But in the new edition of “Mad Men Yourself” on AMC.com one of the accessory options is a red accordion. And one of the wardrobe choices is a plaid jacket. Well, check out my Mad Men avatar and compare it to the photo of me taken in about 1985. ‘Nuff said? But the piece of resistance, the cherry on the sundae, the beyond-a-shadow-of-a-doubt evidence that Matt Weiner is plugging my show Canned Ham came in lasts night’s season four premiere: Don Draper, dashing, lead character Don Draper is presented with a canned ham as a thank-you from a client. Not a box of candy, not a Palm Beach weekend. No. A canned ham.

Thank you, Matthew Weiner.