On 'Mad Men,' a Clawed Cure for Don Draper's Waning Mojo? Among the unlikely stars of this, the fifth season of the AMC television series "Mad Men," is a bright red Jaguar E-Type. In a previous episode, Don Draper, the protagonist of the series, called the car "pornographic." With his advertising agency having been invited to pitch Jaguar in last Sunday's episode, Don and the office temptress Joan visit a Jaguar dealer in Manhattan to test drive the XKE, the American designation for the E-type. From appearances, the episode could have been a product placement for Jaguar, but David Pryor, vice president of the Jaguar brand in North America, said in a telephone interview that show producers had decided independently to use the XKE. Before Sunday's episode, however, he said the automaker had had inklings of the car's imminent star turn. Michael L. Cook, the brand's archivist, received calls from two researchers for the show, who described themselves as college students looking for information about the appearance of showrooms in 1966, the year in which the episode was set. Mr. Cook was not fooled. Executives at Jaguar, it so happens, have also been looking back at the company's advertising in the United States as it refines its brand image. Mr. Pryor called attention to the brand's "Alive" advertising theme, begun in February, which required revisions to the company's logo and font, as well as the leaper and growler animal symbols. Mr. Pryor called the initiative the most significant brand push in 40 years. The new image is largely the work of the agency Spark 44, a shop partly owned by Jaguar, and Bruce Dundore, the agency's creative head, whom Mr. Pryor called "our Don Draper." In addition to Spark 44, Jaguar has what Mr. Pryor called an "experiential" program and an agency for social media, Carrot Creative, based in Dumbo, Brooklyn. Last month, Carrot addressed a mock letter of consolation to Don Draper after an episode in which his agency, Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, failed to woo Jaguar. The ad slogan of the 1960s, "A different breed of cat," was a forerunner of the current "Alive" theme that emphasized the emotional qualities of the cars and brand, Mr. Dundore said in a telephone interview. Jaguar's primary ad agency in the "60s was Cunningham & Walsh. "It might be called a boutique agency, but with some high-powered clients," Mr. Cook, the archivist, said. The Jaguar ads featured large product photos with clever copy that was full of information. The agency was later merged with others and left few records. But Mr. Cook and others said that in those days accounts really could change agencies on the strength of socializing over drinks or dinner, much as they do on "Mad Men." Mr. Dundore argued that contemporary advertising held a different function from that of the "60s. Now, it's less about driving people to dealers than to Web sites, where a potential customer can be immersed in the brand. In the earlier era of advertising, appeals to emotion were complemented by reasonable, rational arguments for getting behind the wheel. A Jaguar ad from 1965 lists more than a dozen technical features of the XKE, followed by a burst of lyricism. "Cast aside the fetters of conformity and race the wind," the copy says. Master the sleek dart that is Jaguar and know beyond reason that this is the only car in the world. Few shops produce copy like that these days. And few shows have been more nitpicked than "Mad Men," especially in the advertising world. Mr. Dundore and Mr. Pryor are fans, offering their own exegeses of its plot and themes. Earlier in the season - and even for much of Sunday's episode - Don, played by Jon Hamm, seemed unenthusiastic about the Jaguar account. Mr. Hamm, incidentally, does voiceovers for Mercedes advertisements. At the showroom, Don persuades the salesman to let him and Joan take the two-seat coupe for a test drive by writing a $6,000 check to cover the car's list price of $5,600. Afterwards, Don remains unconvinced. "That car does nothing for me," he tells Joan. Still, as the evening ends, we see an apparently tipsy Don back at the wheel, aggressively running up through the gears. Don's initial dismissal of the XKE suggested to some that he felt the car provided no challenge to the ad man, because it would sell itself. But Mr. Dundore predicts a change in Don's attitude. "I would say Don has been sort of stalled," Mr. Dundore said. But now he's going to throw himself into the account. He's going to get his mojo back.