• by Wayne Friedman , April 8, 2008

AMC's "Mad Men" will drive some new advertisers for its second season --with BMW as its exclusive sponsor for its premiere episode. 

BMW will get a custom-branded vignette focusing on the company heritage and history of the BMW brand. Those vignettes will be attached to regular BMW commercials. "Mad Men" portrays a fictional mid-size ad agency, Sterling & Cooper, in the 1960s.

There will also be co-branded on-air tune-in spots, as well as a presence on amctv.com. AMC will incorporate BMW into the network's "MAD-Vertising" campaign, where the network created custom content for "Mad Men" advertisers last season as part of its commercial breaks.

But BMW will get no product placement in the show--since BMWs were not readily available in the U.S. in the Sixties.

A year ago, "Mad Men" took some heat after hard-liquor advertiser Jack Daniels appeared not only as a major sponsor, but also enjoyed some product placements during the show.

BMW will also get to be the exclusive sponsor for two other episodes in the series. BMW's creative and media agency, GSD&M Idea City, negotiated the elements of the deal.

AMC says it will continue to seek other marketing partnerships for the show, which starts its second season this summer.