Take some modern furniture, a liquor cabinet, and an endless supply of questionable ethics, and you have advertising in its heyday. Surround that with a white picket fence (and some very good bone structure), and you have Mad Men, AMC’s sparkler of a series that’s been making it okay to watch television again.

Dirty, juicy, and maybe even a bit creatively inspiring; Mad Men and its supporting characters have spawned a league of dedicated fans. But what happens when those fans start pretending to be employees of Sterling Cooper… and move into Twitter?

Ha. We interview them, of course.

Read on as Peggy Olson and I chat copywriting, office politics, and discontinued candy, then get in on the game here.

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A few Emmys later and it’s official — Mad Men is an outstanding drama series. The 60s throwback sets, costumes, and conundrums are inspired, but they’re also inspiring. New York designer / unofficial official house designer for UCB, Dyna Moe has illustrated scenes from the first and second season using a period-invoking cartoon style. Her stylized pics portray everything from Betsy and her steed, to the crew at Sterling Cooper enjoying their Christmas party (the piece that started all of this, commissioned by Rich Sommer aka Harry Crane in the series).

You’ve most likely seen writer Steve Dildarian’s work before. That is, if you’ve watched major league sports events in the past 10 years or any television in general. Dildarian worked as a copywriter for world-renowned San Francisco advertising agency Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, where he created a series of spots about a certain set of amphibians for a beer company. After giving Budweiser lizards and an eager donkey something to talk about, he worked with girlfriend Leynete Cariapa to create the short film Angry Unpaid Hooker, a prelude to the new animated series The Life & Times of Tim set to debut on HBO on September 28.

Photos courtesy of HBO/ Jason Merritt; HBO/ TIMS LIFE PRODUCTION

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What do you get when you cross “America’s Favorite Serial Killer” with America’s favorite literary periodical? Conventional wisdom would say you get one very well read sociopath…or perhaps one devilishly clever ad campaign. Readying the launch of it’s promotional push for the premiere of Dexter’s third season on September 28th, Showtime has concocted their own mock cover of The New Yorker, replacing the usual masthead to trumpet “New Dexter,” accompanied by a wonderful cartoon likeness of the smiley slayer portrayed by Michael C. Hall. It’s quite the fiendish display, but we like it anyway.

With a cast as diverse as that of JJ Abrams’ Lost, there’s more than enough room for multiple toy tributes. In contrast to the detailed doppelgängers released by McFarlane Toys in 2006, the upcoming line of Lost Kubricks from Medicom Toy Co have been paired down to the characters’ broadest characteristics. In addition to Jack with signature stubble and Kate with characteristic cleavage, the range includes 2.4-inch representations of Sawyer, Sayid, Hurley, Locke, Charlie, Desmond and Ben. Each figure comes with a tiny trademark accessory. If you’re a Lost fan, but new to buying Kubricks, you should know that the collectible figures are sold by the case, carton and box according to individual ratios. A carton contains 96 boxes, which means that (for example) 19 of those boxes will contain a Jack figure, 12 will have Sayid and just one (known as a “chase figure”) will reveal Ben. Collect them all and remember, if you get doubles, you can always kitbash your own Dharma Initiative.

via ToyCyte
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If you’ve ever wondered what you would look like as a Teletubby, complete with working TV stomach, we recommend getting a hold of one of DND Casa’s line of TV-equipped mirrors. The Korean electronics manufacturer has incorporated a specific mirror imaging technology from Germany’s Ad Notam to allow mirrored surfaces, whether they’re an actual mirror or a lamp or bookshelf, to display visual images. These unsuspecting idiot boxes don’t just double as HDTVs, they also can be connected as PC screens or LED displays. So when someone barges in to your room as you’re browsing Internet porn, you can make it look as if you’re just fixing your hair.

From the brilliant minds that brought you the design mag Beautiful/Decay comes Something In the Universe (SITU), an agency that will tackle creative services, brand strategy, and marketing. In addition to working on the mag, they’ve also helped out The Shins, Toyota, and the MTV Movie Awards, but from what we gather, you can hire them for a little guidance even if you’re not (yet) a household name.

We have a kind of man-crush going on with artist/illustrator/disco king Shepard Fairey. It’s no secret. But who would have thought that a marketing guy at Showtime would share our unrequited love? Dexter, the series about a serial killer killer starring Michael C. Hall (yes, the gay brother in Six Feet Under), is coming to the San Diego Comicon, and to get the word out Fairey was commissioned to create a poster. You may also remember that the Obey Giant originator recently lent his skills to another celebrity marketing campaign. And while there may be some of you that decry Fairey’s Madison Ave. turn, we’re just glad that he’s pimping a show worthy of his pimp slap.

This new guy from D.C. is smart. Wale (pronounced Wah-Lay) smashes open the vocal sampling goldmine that is Seinfeld and uses it as a framework for his Mixtape About Nothing, a record that comes off as one of the best conventional-yet-not hip-hop efforts so far this year. On the opening track, Wale establishes his chosen focus with a beat adapted from the familiar mimicking of Jerry’s stand-up (”What’s the deal with…?). Totally genius.

The tape carries over beats that are derivative of D.C.’s whole Go-Go thing, and Wale’s casual yet intelligent flow. Content-wise, he touches on everything: labels, music, love, lust, success, failure, and one of the most poignant critiques of the N-word, illustrated by Michael Richards’ infamous rant and the subsequent apology for it. Moody, layered, and yet totally accessible, this is an early example from an artist who will surely shake things up in a stagnant scene. Wale brings intelligence back to flare, and I while can’t wait for his album to come out this summer, the Mixtape About Nothing will have to tide us over.

The Brooklyn Brothers‘ mission to cut through the crap that is any brand’s “intended image” is one that will inevitably cure the quarter-inch, 15-second attention span that most of us have formed to protect us from bombardment. Every one of the spots from the ‘Music Is…’ campaign for Fuse TV is conceptually simple, honest, and totally engaging visually. Ranging from film to animation, there is no strict stylistic theme within the collection aside from the tagline, yet each invokes a similar feeling of fleeting delight. My personal favorite is ‘Music Is a Time Machine’ (I’m a sucker for a tight beatbox).

Has your Battlestar Galactica obsession taken over your life to the point where you’re unsure if you can trust any of your friends for fear they might be Cylons? When you wake up are you afraid to get about of bed as a result of the impending doom the human race faces at the hands of their evil, sometimes sexy, robot enemies? Well, if you’re in need of some motivation to face that Cylon infested danger zone you call the outside world, each morning, we think it’s imperative that you invest in the set of Battlestar Galactica Propaganda Posters. Each of these five posters is printed on heavy, satin-finish paper and contains inspirational graphics and images that are sure to make you want to stand up to the Cylon scourge every waking morning. So get out there and do your part from humanity…or at least stay inside and order the posters first.

Just when you thought reality TV had gotten about as real as real was worth, in step the guys at Mod My LIfe. Co-founders Andrew Keidel and Martin Codyre have created the newest - and realest - in real TV. Mod My Life is a web-based reality TV show where viewers get to control the action by submitting and voting on actions or “mods.”

The star of each show, the “modstar” will be fed the winning actions through a hidden earpiece and it’ll all be caught on a camera either worn by the participant (sometimes hidden) or by a third-party cameraman. So let’s summarize: hidden camera, user-submitted actions, unknowing third-party participants. Yeah, that sounds like a recipe for entertainment no matter how you slice it. And I’m sure your minds are already rolling through a hundred different submission ideas, so head to Mod My Life at 12:30 EST today to check it out.

The much anticipated third installment of the Sony Bravia television campaign has finally been released — or found — on the internet. The first two, Balls and Paint made quite a scene over the last couple of years, both in their creation and amongst consumers; both won numerous advertising industry awards. Of course, neither aired here in the US, so enjoy them online and then run out and buy a Samsung or something.

The latest ad for Bravia, Play-Doh, was shot here in NY over the course of three weeks. The creators are calling it “the most ambitious piece of stop-motion animation ever undertaken.” Have a look here and let us know what you think. Personally, I like it better than Paint.

A certain someone just told me he couldn’t help me come up with a TSF topic because he’s too busy watching Domo-Kun on YouTube. That got me thinking — there are times that I tell people I’m “too busy right now,” when really I’m just watching the same five episodes of Planet Unicorn over and over again or participating in drinking games based on SoCal-based MTV reality shows (it’s a shot for every “like,” “bro,” and “Daaaaaaaddy!” if you have to ask) via AIM. So, I’m wondering what everyone else is watching when they’re allegedly swamped, because if you ask me, procrastination is always better when it’s a collaborative effort. It’s Talk Shop Friday…go ahead and share your viewing habits it the comments — after all, sharing is caring, etc.

Tonight at 7:15 pm (Sao Paulo time), Brazil’s — maybe even the world’s? — first Internet user-generated content program airs on television channel TVA, bringing to fruition a project that’s been patiently marinating in Web form for a couple of months soaking up viewers, submitters and the curious alike. Similar to MTV’s QOOB TV that I wrote about here a few weeks ago, the channel will broadcast audience-submitted entries like animation and music vids pulled from the Web site FizTV, all presented one after another without the aid of annoying hosts. But the videos have to cut it to make the cream of the crop, a process that’s as straightforward as the submission process; each clip’s worthiness for television is voted upon by the site’s visitors.

FizTV and TVA are both owned by super-media company Grupo Abril, which happens to also have MTV Brasil in its assets. I’m all for better TV in between the novelas and dubbed-WB reruns, so I wish FizTV all the luck. To all our Internet-savvy Brazilian readers, we’re curious to hear your comments!