The author does a remarkably bad job analyzing the use of the word leverage. It sticks out like a sore thumb because he boldly claims that Mad Men is particularly bad at business language and then spends an entire paragraph incorrectly explaining it.
Leverage in the investment banking world means only one thing - debt. The modern metaphor is that borrowed money is used to multiply the force of your own money the way a physical lever multiplies the physical force you can apply- through leverage.
That’s clearly not what Campbell meant by “to leverage a sweeter deal”. He was making his own metaphor based on mechanical leverage, not referencing investment banking and debt.
