Mad Man: David Lynch, Commercial Artist

In the wake of David Lynch’s passing, any number of endearingly quirky and hilarious stories have been shared about him, including one where he met with actors Jon Hamm and Elizabeth Moss, stars of the critically acclaimed AMC advertising biz drama Mad Men. Lynch was so enamored with the show—”They’re great characters… great writing, great atmosphere”—that during dinner, he called the actors by their characters’ names.

“I had the opportunity to meet Peggy Olsen and Don Draper,” said Lynch. “That’s who they are to me. I called Peggy, ‘Peggy.’” (This story was confirmed by Moss during an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, who told about receiving a follow up email from Lynch: “He wrote ‘Dear Peggy’ and finished it with ‘Give my love to Don’.”)

Lynch’s love of Mad Men was not a one-way street—series creator Matthew Weiner has spoken of the filmmaker’s influence on his show and career a number of times. Nor is it hard to understand Lynch’s attraction to the material: beyond the simple quality of the writing or acting, Mad Men’s exploration of the often dark subconscious of the American Dream are not dissimilar to that of Lynch’s work (although his stories are far more disturbing and strange). 

But even beyond that obvious connection, it is likely Lynch felt a personal connection to the material due to his own history as an ad man.

In terms of Lynch’s vocations, he’s first known, obviously, as a movie director and showrunner. He started out as a visual artist and remained prolific in that field throughout his life. He was also a recognizable actor, a talented musician, a cartoonist, weatherman, author, coffee maker, and restaurateur. His presence across all of these fields only served to build up his stature as a cultural icon so that his passing at the age of 78 garnered more attention than one might expect from an artist whose work could be so challenging (this is the man who made Inland Empire, remember). 

Which is what makes his commercial directing work so interesting. Even though it’s entirely normal, even expected, for big name directors to take on that type of work —Martin Scorsese directed and starred in a Super Bowl spot just last year—only on rare occasions do these ads break through and achieve widespread notice (Ridley Scott’s iconic 1984 Apple ad springs to mind). 

None of Lynch’s work in the field received that level of attention, which isn’t to say they’ve gone unnoticed. A cursory Google search for ‘David Lynch commericals’ brings up any number of articles, playlists, and individual examples. A dive into them will have you wishing for a Blu-ray collection similar to the Short Films of David Lynch set.

After watching all of these commercials, it’s easy to break them down into a couple of different categories. There are, first and foremost, the scent ads. This market seemed to be where Lynch was most in demand, with him turning out spots for the likes of Calvin Klien, Gorgio Armani, Yves Saint Laurent, and more. These are hardly distinguishable from most perfume commercials of the day: a mix of uber-cool European arthouse cinema and Cinemax-style softcore erotica that borders on self-parody. Lynch’s come replete with a score by his closest collaborator, Angelo Badalamante, so they have more of an immediately emotional hook than most others. 

Lynch did two sets of Calvin Klien ads. The first feature Twin Peaks cast member Heather Graham alongside Benicio Del Toro (sadly, the only time Lynch would work with that actor), while the second set has him laying excerpts from three different novelists (F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and D.H. Lawrence) over footage of beautiful people yearning. Interesting, for sure, but of all the perfume ads, it’s the glitzy, noir-soaked Gio for Armani spot that is most intriguing. Here, he gets to play around with his favorite theme of ‘a woman in trouble’ before moving into a lavish nightclub scene that sees him pay homage to one of his own cinematic forebears and heroes, Federico Fellini.


Then there are the couple of spots that, upon first glance, you would never associate with Lynch: one for AlkaSeltzer Plus, one for Clear Blue pregnancy strips, and one for Barilla Pasta. The latter is just goofy, and really only notable for being the sole collaboration between Lynch and French actor Gérard DePardue, but the other two are more fascinating once you become aware of their authorship. The AlkaSeltzer ad is so mundane on the surface, yet it bears so many visual and aural motifs that are obviously Lynchian: His aural soundscapes are filled with fizzes and pops, so of course he was going to make the most of that effect here. But the swooping crane-ins and dissolves, combined with the sense of transcendence on the model’s face,recall so many moments of grace throughout his films. These also feature in his pregnancy ad (shot in black and white, save for a climactic burst of Lynch’s favorite color, blue). 

The story behind the pregnancy strip ads is fascinating, and not just for the prank Lynch pulled on the lead actress—having her actually take a real pregnancy test beforehand and then switching it out with a positive one from a pregnant crew member (the actress was game with the prank, responding, “You bastard! Very funny!”). An Entertainment Weekly story from the time reveals that Lynch heard about the spots from his agent and campaigned for the gig. The clients were worried he would turn in something weird and scary, but he went out of his way to reassure them and keep them happy on set. However, when pressed by a copywriter with the ad firm about his real motives, he admitted that it was the idea of a psychologically tortured young woman that drew him to the project.

In other cases, it was clear that the client wanted the Lynch touch. 


His 1991 PSA for the New York Department of Sanitation depicts a rat-filled apocalypse, and is stands as one of the most frightening and grotesque things Lynch ever made (a vocal environmentalist, you could tell he put his heart into it), while his eerie and infernal ad for the French cigarette brand Parisienne bears his credit in the last frame (a lifelong smoker, you can tell he also put his heart into this one).

Meanwhile, he was allowed to go full surrealist for his dizzying Adidas spot (for which he was reportedly paid a cool million), as well as one for the Nissan Micra, which offered him the opportunity to combine his love of modern and retro decor, as well as a visual shoutout to another of his major influences, the Surrealist painter Magritte.

Of all of these outwardly Lynchina examples, my favorite is the exceedingly wacky one he helmed for Playstation’s ‘Welcome to the Third Place’ campaign. Titled Duck, it features an actor who greatly resembles one of the doomed FBI agents from Twin Peaks (a little more Chris Isaak than Kyle MacLachlan, although he gives the latter’s iconic thumbs up gesture to an upside-down reflection of himself at one point) traversing what seems to be a section of the Black Lodge. This baby is loaded with Lynch’s touchstone visuals: dark hallways, billowing smoke, membranous branches, shooting bursts of flame, floating disarticulated heads and severed arms, talking animals, and intentionally uncanny special effects. (Another ad in that series, Bambi, recalls individual scenes from Lost Highway and The Straight Story.)

It’s ironic that Duck feels more like a piece of Twin Peaks apocrypha than the actual in-universe Peaks commercials that Lynch, alongside several prominent members of the cast, filmed in partnership with Georgia Coffee in 1991. These are the classic big name celebrity ads that used to be the sole province of Japanese television, which was initially the only reason Lynch—who said he was morally opposed to these types of product tie-ins—agreed to them. However, he found he had a lot of fun making them, and they do, in turn, make for fun viewing. However, they represent all of the surface quirkiness of Twin Peaks that American audiences latched onto, before the more disturbing qualities of Lynch’s artistic vision drove them away. When Lynch (and co-creator Mark Frost) brought the series back in 2017 after a 30-year hiatus, it was the latter qualities they focused on.


By that time, Lynch hadn’t directed a feature in 11 years, nor had he done much commercial work. His last film was 2006’s Inland Empire. Five years after that, he would direct a 16-minute online promotional short for Dior called Lady Blue Shanghai. Set in that eponymous Chinese municipality, it stars Marion Cotillard as a business woman who finds a mysterious bag (a Dior handbag, naturally) in her hotel room and feels she is in danger. She eventually meets a phantom-like local with whom she embarks upon a short-lived romance.

Shot in the harsh digital aesthetic of Inland Empire, the whole short feels like it exists within that film’s universe, with Cotillard another of Lynch’s women in trouble—only here her journey is not nearly so brutal as most of the others. Still, the first half of this short is awash in the quiet, glacially ratcheting dread that distinguishes so much of his later work.

The commercial advertisements and promotional films of David Lynch are more than simple curiosities for completists. Now that Lynch has shaken off this earthly coil and his work is finished, we can chart his progression as a filmmaker through these short spots. We see how his style changed throughout the years—the early black and white ads reminiscent of the dreaminess of his first few features, the more overtly sinister and surreal ones mirroring the violent nightmares of his middle period, and his final foray an example of his move into a more transcendentalist (or ‘slow cinema’) aesthetic.

They also show how an artist can healthily thread the line between artistic and commercial pursuits. Lynch never let the latter infect the former, choosing instead to bring his personal artistry to for-hire work.

Zach Vasquez lives and writes in Los Angeles. His critical work focuses on film and literature. He writes fiction as well.

Back to top