With all the boozing, smoking, passion and betrayal, it's easy to overlook the real business at the heart of the hit TV drama Mad Men: the advertising. Pay attention, though, and there's much to be gleaned about the era from the authentic campaigns and professional dilemmas woven into the scripts, whether it's Don Draper creating the (real-life) "It's toasted" slogan for Lucky Strike or an exchange with a colleague that reveals why Don's the agency's hot-shot:

Don Draper: "What do women want?"

Roger Sterling: "Who cares?"

Many of the campaigns of the 50s and 60s are included in Taschen's compendium of mid-century advertising created by the real masterminds of Madison Avenue (who coined the term "Mad men" themselves). A beautifully designed romp through those decades, this coffee-table tome is both thought-provoking and amusing, much like good marketing. You'd be hard pressed not to smirk at some of the ideas that made the cut: did babies really advertise cigarettes in 1950 with lines such as "Before you scold me, Mom ... maybe you'd better light up a Marlboro"? Did anyone actually fall for the "refreshing new note in printed acetate foulard neckwear" that was Manhattan's line of "side glance" ties (translation: novelty ties with the pattern down one side)?

Short essays introduce each volume (one dedicated to the 50s, the other the 60s), and help to illustrate how both the industry and society evolved over that period in terms of everything from sexism to alcohol consumption. Indeed, part of the book's fascination lies in seeing how the unsophisticated ads of the 1950s – copy-heavy, teeming with adjectives, full of underlined words – make way for "the big idea" of the 1960s: witty headline and picture combinations. So while a 1960 ad for Coca-Cola, in which a young girl is offered drinks by multiple suitors, virtually screams at consumers with its effusive use of exclamation marks: "Be really refreshed! Sit out with Coke!… the cold crisp taste that deeply satisfies!", a 1967 one for 7-Up merely shows an ice-cold bottle top dripping with condensation and the tagline, "Wet and Wild".

Normally cynical about bandwagon publishing, I found Advertising from the Mad Men Era irresistible. Whether enjoyed as a companion to the series, or simply a time capsule of the era, it's almost as seductive as the curvy gals and sharp-suited guys of the award-winning show itself.