Christina Hendricks - the raining queen of Mad Men

The sultry star of Mad Men, Christina Hendricks, has landed herself an advertising job – becoming the new face of US trench coat brand London Fog. In a nice case of real-life imitating art, the label signed Hendricks after it featured in Mad Men last year as one of the fictional ad agency's top clients.
 
The retro-looking campaign plays on both the role which Hendricks is most famous for - vivacious 1960s office manager Joan Holloway - and London Fog's 87-year-old heritage. In a series of black and white photos the actress sports a beehive up-do and wears trench-coats which, belted at the waist, highlight her famous hour-glass figure.
 
Despite the name, London Fog is an American brand which was established in 1923. For many years it was best-known for making waterproofs for the US Navy but then it branched out and, by the 1970s, two-thirds of all raincoats sold in America were by London Fog.

The Hendricks ads follow other recent campaigns – featuring supermodel Gisele Bundchen and Desperate Housewives actress Eva Longoria – designed to sex up the brand.
 
Would adman Don Draper have approved of the autumn 2010 campaign? When London Fog featured in the opening episode of Mad Men's third series last year, he and another character, British CFO Lane Pryce, discussed the label's name, with Pryce admitting it was "ludicrous".
 
"There is no fog in London. There is no London fog," he says in the scene. "Never was. It was the coal dust from the industrial era… Charles Dickens and what-not." ·