So Gossip Girl is back. And sure, it doesn’t have much of an effect on my life. But it’s back, and people are excited about it. In New York City, banners on top of taxicabs, posters at bus stops and giant billboards hanging from skyscrapers all featured shoulders-up shots of the Gossip Girl characters engaged in various sexually implicit positions — making out in the back of a car, having sex in a pool, and more. One ubiquitous catch phrase was emblazoned over each one of these snapshots: “OMFG.” Whatever you want to say about the show, you’d be kidding yourself if you didn’t admit that it’s pretty great advertising — concise, alarming and memorable. The ads demanded the attention of those walking by, and it got me thinking how marketing people might similarly employ obnoxious Internet vernacular to peddle other products.

Through two seasons of Mad Men, Don Draper was a man in supreme control of his destiny. Things didn’t always go his way, but you at least got the impression that — with the notable exception of Betty evicting him last season — he was always in exactly the position he wanted to be. And, if he weren’t, he would extricate himself, quick and clean. No messy emotions allowed.