‘Are you a Jackie or a Marilyn?’ is the question posed in ‘Maidenform’, Season 2, Episode 6 of AMC’s Mad Men. First broadcast in 2008, and set in 1961, the storyline concerns on a proposed advertising campaign for Playtex brassieres. On a drunken night out, the ad-men divide the female characters into two categories: ‘Jackies’ after America’s First Lady, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy (later Onassis); and ‘Marilyns’, after Marilyn Monroe.

This episode was the inspiration behind Pamela Keogh’s new book, Are You a Jackie or a Marilyn? Timeless Lessons on Love, Power and Style. Keogh has previously covered other icons of the past, including Elvis Presley and Audrey Hepburn. She has also written about Kennedy in Jackie Style (2001), but this is her first full-length work on Monroe. Continue reading →