Mad Men are taking over the world. And that’s no bad thing

Inspired by the new American hit TV show, Rory Sutherland — The Spectator’s own ‘Wiki Man’ — says that the capture of the Brown government and almost everything else by advertisers and marketers could be a great leap forward. Persuasion is better than legislation

As an adman myself, I am always delighted when I see one of my colleagues off to work in No. 10, or to advise a political party — even though I’m a little worried that, after working with Sir Martin Sorrell for a few years, David Muir may find it hard to cope with Gordon Brown’s relatively chilled management style and his breezy, hands-off approach to delegation.

I’m also happy to see the arrival in No. 10 of Stephen Carter, and to see that PR Week has somehow become a Downing Street journal of record. Regardless of my personal politics, I would like to see far more marketing thinking close to the seat of power — an opinion you’ll find brilliantly argued in John Quelch and Katherine Jocz’s superb new book Greater Good — How Good Marketing makes for Better Democracy.

My only fear about all this? Politicians seem all too liable to misuse the talents of people from marketing or PR — so while they may be happy to employ marketers to burnish their personal images, to identify key groups of swing voters or to come up with an eye-catching initiative in response to a front cover on the Daily Mail, it never seems to occur to them that marketing thinking can also be useful in solving some of the more important challenges facing a government or a society.

Even worse is when the image-making and policy-making become confused or conflated — so that government develops policy with one ear always on public opinion, causing government activity to come in successive and unconnected waves and destroying any impression of sincerity.