Mad Men

On Sunday, August 16 the brilliant AMC series Mad Men will begin its 3rd season. Mad Men, which is wordplay for "ad men" is a biting, largely accurate depiction of the mores of the 1960's as practiced in a Madison Avenue ad agency. TNB can vouch for the rampant sexism and smoking of those days but not the drinking (CPA's needed to keep their minds sharp).

One can only imagine what the ad men (there were few women although there is one making her way up on the show) of 40 plus years ago, who faced a far more conservative society than we now have, would make of the incredible opportunities existing today. For example:

• Wouldn't Don Draper (the hero) and his cohorts have loved to represent say Bud Light which is receiving the tacit approval of President Obama at his "beerfest" scheduled for tonight. Although the original cause (racial profiling) of the upcoming get-together is quite serious, and was certainly poorly handled, a good ad man should be able to portray the beer sipping as an endorsement. Or maybe they could get the President to reveal his cigarette of choice for his occasional puff. Of course, tobacco can't be advertised but the ad world would see that publicity would ensue anyway.
• Nobody in the Mad Men heyday could have foreseen the possibilities in medical advertising which has been permitted for fewer than 20 years. Operating with practically no restraints ("call your doctor if you have an erection lasting over 4 hours"), other than the ubiquitous side effect warnings ("might cause warts on your face, blindness or death, etc.") it would have been delicious to see what the creative minds of yore would have brought forth.
• And what about today's no holds barred largely negative political advertising (mostly absent in this non-election year)? Also operating with few restraints (such as the truth) this area would have provided a far more fertile ground than existed back then. Although there was the scary 1964 ad depicting Presidential candidate Barry Goldwater as a war mongering child killer.

So if you take TNB's advice and get caught up in Mad Men just fast forward in your mind how these rich characters would have probably behaved in 2009.