Mad Men

By Mark Kaufman
Watched the premiere episode of AMC’s Mad Men last night. Much like a cheap and tawdry coupon that was a minor plot point it will keep me coming back for more. The producers have figured out several old school/fresh ways to add advertising into the programming itself. This is basically the first cigarette advertising I have seen on TV since I was a kid! One major blooper was inferring that Lucky Strike started using the slogan “It’s Toasted” in 1960, when in fact it was first used in 1917! One minor blooper, it’s doubtful that the Metro North logo seen when the creative director/main character heads home was the one used in 1960. The image here is of the character Midge, described as “A smart, ambitious art illustrator, Midge is a thoroughly independent career woman – much like the multitudes of women venturing into the workforce for the first time. Midge sets her own rules…”. she is the quasi-bohemian mistress of the main character.  Hooray for illustrators! Most of the characters so far are despicable, flawed human beings, just like any office in the world. The series takes place in 1960s era Madison Avenue and has everything you could hope for, sexism, racism, closeted creatives, the “Italian” agencies, the Jewish “agencies”, smoking in the office, drinking in the office, strippers, infidelity, crises of conscience, lying, bitching…all of the things that make this business so different, so appealing. Just kidding of course, it has all that, but all of those things were and are true in corporate America and life in general. I am old enough to have gotten into the business at the tail end of many of these anachronistic elements, I remember smoking at the office, wearing suits to work everyday, more blatant forms of mysogeny, anti-Semitism and racism, closet cases, and most of all total douche bag account executives. Happily most of those things have been tossed aside or at least swept under the rug in the last 25 years. Although I do miss when everyone wore a suit or a dress to work everyday.