ADVISORY ARTICLE
By Chris Gridley
Georgia, USA
Introduction
Set in the rapidly evolving world of 1960s Manhattan, the television series Mad Men explores the glamorous yet cutthroat world of advertising, centered around charismatic and mysterious creative director Don Draper. Don, a master of persuasion and storytelling, navigates a blossoming industry undergoing social and cultural change. Leading the creative team at an Ad agency, Don’s superpower is crafting emotionally charged advertisements that tap into people’s desires, fears, and ambitions. With each compelling pitch and challenging client, Don expertly balances charm, creativity, and ruthlessness, illustrating how the ability to sell ideas can profoundly influence not only commerce but also the cultural landscape itself.
“If you don’t like what’s being said, change the conversation.” – Don Draper
In Mad Men, Don Draper doesn’t only sell lipstick and cigarettes, he sells feelings. Wearing slick suits and telling slicker lies, he understands that people don’t fear change, they fear change that isn’t their idea and that’s where most projects fail. If your stakeholders feel like change is happening to them instead of from them, then you should expect resistance, disruption, and a quiet unraveling.
Here’s how Don Draper from Mad Men can help you navigate the challenges in managing change like a Manhattan ad exec.
Sell the Future, Not the Features
In one memorable pitch, Don introduces the Kodak executives to the “Carousel,” a new slide projector. Rather than present technical functions or features, Don captivates them by sharing personal pictures, family moments, glimpses of happiness and nostalgia. He describes the product as a “time machine,” transporting people back to their own cherished moments. The executives were moved by this pitch and did not see only a product but an emotional connection. By tapping into longing, family, and the power of memories, Don masterfully transforms an ordinary projector into a profound emotional experience, successfully selling a compelling future rather than mere technology.
PM Wisdom
Project managers who try selling change with charts, data, or technical jargon are going to lose. Stakeholders don’t buy features, they buy emotions, identity, and aspirations. Don’t sell technical details, sell a vision of how life improves. Don’t offer software; offer fewer late nights. Don’t sell process improvements; sell less stress. If stakeholders resist, it means your narrative missed the mark. Master emotional selling, or watch your project get buried alive under PowerPoint slides no one asked for.
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How to cite this article: Gridley, C (2025). Selling Change Like Don Draper, PM World Journal, Vol. XIV, Issue VII, July. Available online at https://pmworldlibrary.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/pmwj154-Jul2025-Gridley-Selling-Change-Like-Don-Draper-advisory.pdf
About the Author
Chris Gridley
Georgia, USA
Chris Gridley is a Project Executive with more than $2 billion in programs delivered across e-commerce, postal, defense, and logistics sectors. He has a bachelor’s degree in business administration and has been a PMP since 2005. He leads project teams at Fives Intralogistics and is the author of the upcoming book The Pop Culture PM: Everything I Know About Project Management I Learned from Pop Culture. He can be reached at chris@gridley.me or www.linkedin.com/in/chris-gridley.
