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Looking Back on Mad Men
The most important thing about a a point of view is to have one. It is a Mad World In 2007, I was new to DDB having been appointed Chief Communica?ons Officer at the storied adver?sing agency. One of the first memos that hit my desk was a “heads up” that Doyle Dane Bernbach was going to be featured in a new television series. Creator MaIhew Weiner had consulted with the agency prior to produc?on and my arrival but we did not know how we were to be treated in the storyline. Fast-­‐forward eight years and I am happy to say that DDB faired the best in the quips and portrayals of Mad Ave agencies (poor McCann!). I can honestly say that I would have watched and been loyal to the show regardless of my employ or career. It has been an amazing trip through my adolescence and profession, as well as, our history and pop culture. Now that the final season has started, I’m feeling nostalgic for all of the nostalgia the show has provided. Mad Men has been cleverly premised on inves?ga?ng the past by monitoring the effect of change. Throughout we have been witness to troubled public and private lives, personal struggle, even surrender, in the face of social upheaval. Mad Men has been cleverly
premised on investigating
the past by monitoring the
effect of change.!
And Now a Word from our Sponsors The series has addressed race, gender roles, war, free love, assassina?ons, office poli?cs, infidelity, addic?on, and, occasionally, adver?sing. On the last subject it has been surprising that so liIle discussion has taken place on the impact mass produc?on coupled with mass adver?sing had on society. This commercialism turned people into consumers and products into brands and we have never been the same. Nor has the series adequately tackled the quality of adver?sing in the period. In the 1960’s adver?sing became a game of more not beIer. Teressa Iezzi, staff editor at Fast Company and previously editor of Crea0vity, wrote in her book, The Idea Writers: Copywri0ng in a New Media and Marke0ng Era, “For every “Think Small” (a DDB campaign for Volkswagen) in the 1960’s there was a boIomless bowl of the same insufferable dross that’s served up on any given commercial break and that covers the ground from forgeIable waste of everyone’s ?me and money to ac?vely annoying disincen?ve to ever buy the product being adver?sed.” …turned people into consumers and products into brands!
and we have never been the same.!
3 At 60 miles an hour the loudest noise in this new Rolls-­‐Royce comes from the electric clock. It is amazing that given the volume of work from this era each notable agency can cite only a small number of standout campaigns. For Ogilvy & Mather, it is “The Man in the Hathaway Shirt” who sported a black eye patch adding mystery to his decision to wear only Hathaway shirts. The roguish adventurer drove sport cars, sailed yachts, courted women, held an elephant’s tusk and inspected a shotgun all in the same crisp white shirt. Dos Equis’ contemporary “World’s Most Interes?ng Man” campaign should pay royal?es to Ogilvy and to Hathaway given the characters’ similari?es. Ogilvy a l s o c o i n e d t h e c a t c h y a n d i r r e v e r e n t “Schweppervescence” for the so` drink company and defined elegance, comfort and innova?on for Rolls Royce by sta?ng, “At 60 miles an hour the loudest noise in this new Rolls-­‐Royce comes from the electric clock.” 4 Leo BurneI, the agency and the man, loved using cultural archetypes. His agency invented mythical personali?es that held American values at their core, crea?ng the Jolly Green Giant, Tony the Tiger, the Pillsbury Doughboy and the Marlboro Man. Leo BurneI kept a folder in his desk called "Corny Language". He told his people, "Make it simple. Make it memorable. Make it invi?ng to look at. Make it fun to read." BurneI took the world and turned it into a living cartoon where sa?sfac?on and fulfillment could be bought. The ra?o of truly memorable and effec?ve work in the Mad Men era is really quite horrendous but not dissimilar to efforts today. This is Weiner’s overriding thesis for the show: Our world is similar in many ways to the one fi`y years ago, just shinier and glossier. Or new and improved. 5 Quiet on the Set Wri?ng in, The Past Isn’t What It Used To Be: The Troubled Homes of Mad Men, Mark Taylor wrote “Mad Men’s producers reanimate 60s iconography in order to level it.” Of course, I am speaking about amazingly accurate portrayal of the era through the costumes, hairstyles, sets, language, inside jokes, and pop culture references. On many an episode I spoIed an ashtray, chair, decanter, shag carpet, stereo, or poster that had once inhabited my family home. Combined, the characters and sets only emphasize how staged life was back then. Many of my friend’s homes in the 60’s and 70’s had immaculate living and dining rooms that no one was allowed to enter except on the most special of occasions (remember the plas?c that adorned couches?). In essence, many of us lived on a television “set” while we watched the television set. ManhaIan acts as more than a backdrop in Mad Men, it is a mul?-­‐layered character adding to the show’s richness. The locales are me?culously researched yet, shot in Los Angeles adding to the irony of image over substance, an ongoing cri?que of adver?sing. Not just the center of the ad industry, New York was also a hub for innova?on; its famous department stores alone introduced ideas like window displays, designer collec?ons, and branded shopping bags. Classic restaurants from that era are honored in the series including Lutece, Sardi’s, and the Four Seasons. The El Morocco, The Slipper Room, P.J. Clarke’s are among the bars singled out. Iconic ManhaIan hotels appear including The Savoy Plaza, The Roosevelt Hotel (the first to include retail stores), and The Taj Pierre. 6 The Medium is the Message Yet, there are a few errors to be found. AdmiIedly, precious few given the rigorous research. One occurred in the first season. Office manager Joan Holloway stealthily reaffirms her authority over secretary Peggy Olson when she tells Peggy she is to be promoted to copywriter. Joan obliquely takes credit by saying, “Well, you know what they say: the medium is the message.” However, Marshall McLuhan’s famous slogan became popular in 1964 and not in 1960 as depicted in the show. I know, I am nitpicking but I am a big fan of the Mad Professor. McLuhan was a media savant and eloquent cri?c of adver?sing. At the same ?me he begrudgingly admired its influence and used it to his own advantage. As The Globe and Mail points out, “For most of the 1960s and part of the 1970s, McLuhan seemed to be everywhere – on radio, in print, in film (most notably with a cameo appearance in Woody Allen’s Annie Hall) and especially on television. The laIer, ironically, was a medium he considered pernicious, a certain harbinger of the eventual demise of print culture. He dis?lled his genius, including phrases that became and remain part of the daily lexicon, such as ‘the medium is the message,’ into some?mes puzzling aphorisms, an early form of the sound byte.” This ubiquity and popularity turned on him. As the preeminent communica?ons and technology theorist, his ra` of ideas on “electronic communica?ons media” and how it impacted human thinking, interac?on, and collabora?on came to be labeled “McLuhanacy”. But now McLuhan is back. I found this out on a visit to Facebook headquarters in Palo Alto. A too-­‐youthful execu?ve shared that McLuhan is required reading at the social network. I spoIed plenty of copies of Understanding Media and The Gutenberg Galaxy among the cubicles. Essayist Lewis Lapham credits McLuhan’s resurgence to the accuracy of his predic?ons or as The Globe and Mail phrases it, he “makes a lot more sense now that so much of what he foresaw in the 1960s has come true”. 7 Weiner has repositioned history much like an advertising
professional repositions a cola, confectionary, or car. !
The Past is Prologue I have appreciated much about Mad Men but it has been the narra?ve complexity of the storytelling that has appealed. It focuses on con?nuity over closure so I expect that not everything will be wrapped in a ?dy and preIy bow at series end. This fractured form of storytelling has made Mad Men’s re-­‐telling and re-­‐
evalua?ng of the past both crea?vely and innova?vely inspired. Major historical events in Mad Men are not presented as a coherent narra?ve because people’s lives are not portrayed in a linear fashion. In short, the re-­‐evalua?ng of history is provided through personaliza?on. We experience history through the lives of Don, Joan, Roger and others. Glen Creeber, author of Digital Culture: Understanding New Media, believes Mad Men is so successful because it is “able to balance and address the ‘personal’ and the ‘poli?cal’ within one complex narra?ve trajectory.” That sounds wordy but you get the point. Weiner has reposi?oned history much like an adver?sing professional reposi?ons a cola, confec?onary, or car. He is clearly fascinated with the 1960’s but the show is meant to parallel the changes we have experienced in this last decade. Weiner is interested in knowing whether people in tumultuous ?mes recognize the change going on around them. By watching Mad Men we become more cognizant of our own lives. 8 At its most basic level, the series centers on capitalism, clear gender roles regarding the sexes, the evolu?on in racial poli?cs, and unchecked hedonism. Those topics make for a great soap opera but Mad Men’s appeal is in the search for deeper meaning and connec?on. All the struggles and conflicts that make up the storylines are predicated on a rejec?on of the status quo. 9 Don looks conformist in his ‘gray flannel suit’ and pork-­‐pie hat but he is a rebel. As is Joan, Peggy and Roger. They seem to func?on within the lines but they are drawing an en?rely new picture. Each “moves forward” as Don advises but they seldom care what is le` in their wake. This behavior is reminiscent of the Tom Stoppard line from his play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, “We cross our bridges when we come to them and burn them behind us, with nothing to show for our progress except a memory of the smell of smoke, and a presump?on that once our eyes watered.” In this sense, the series is akin to an episode of The Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits. The characters are trapped in a world they have contributed to but one in which they desperately want to escape. Every episode has them running from their current circumstance only to land firmly back in it (hmm, maybe it is more like The Prisoner). It is a nightmare of their own making. Many would argue that we find ourselves in exactly the same dilemma today. Consider this from Analyzing Mad Men: Cri0cal Essays on the Television Series edited by ScoI F. Stoddart, “Mad Men offers the schadenfreude-­‐filled message that their predecessors were equally unhappy – and that the bleakness meter in American life has always been set on high.” But if that’s what the show is about why pick on adver?sing? The answer is quite simple. The people in the industry were seen as colorful mavericks. They ran counter to the ubiquitous grey, drone-­‐like middle managers that were the subject of sociologist William H. Whyte’s 1956 book The Organiza0on Man. In Analyzing Mad Men, the book says “conformity was the enemy of crea?vity and, therefore, produc?vity” so ad men appeared highly produc?ve and appealing as an?-­‐heroes. What it really means is, a show that took place at IBM, Bethlehem Steel, or General Electric in the early 60’s may not have had the same sexy appeal. 10 Of course, we’re all impacted by adver?sing. It’s everywhere around us. And given Don’s bleak childhood, it helps explain why Don chose adver?sing as his profession. In the worlds that Don cra`s, he avoids the anxie?es of the `real’ world and simulates comfort and stability. According to Jean Baudrillard, “All original culture forms, all determined languages are absorbed in adver?sing because it has no depth, it is instantaneous and instantaneously forgoIen.” As someone in the profession I enjoy the brain-­‐teasing conundrum put forth in Analyzing Mad Men of “the contradictory no?on that any “mass” marketed product has the capacity to individualize anyone”. The show also accurately portrays an ongoing dynamic in the industry that “everyone in this office is always compe?ng with each other, even if they do not seem to be doing so.” We see Sterling Cooper at its best when it bonds together and pitches new work or delivers a new campaign. Today, employees of ad agencies s?ll forget that real compe??on is outside of their office. Everything else is just internal poli?cs. There is also the observa?on that the agency has been ineptly run and managed. When successful it is a mystery even to themselves. In Analyzing Mad Men one essay suggests the agency “is resistant to adap?ng its strategy to a changing media landscape, o`en underes?ma?ng the impact of new media (e.g., television), new products (e.g., imported small cars) and demographics (e.g., youth culture)”. Weiner gets it right when he has Sterling Cooper merge, sell, re-­‐merge, combine and mone?ze in different forms. Such ac?vity is representa?ve of the insecuri?es and fear that permeates the industry. 11 Psychologically Speaking My wife is a psychotherapist and having been exposed into the basest aspects of that profession I found the most jarring plotline was Don’s denial of his half-­‐brother Adam. Don refuses to have him in his new life and the resul?ng suicide was horrific. As such, the psychological issues related to Don’s ‘family of origin’ make for meaty material especially when he is more devastated over the loss of his fake wife. Analyzing Mad Men suggests this “aliena?on from his family is one of the show’s clearest examples of the real world’s failure to deliver on the promises given us by capitalism.” Don searches for real family throughout each season and we, at the same ?me, want him to aIain it and to fail in the aIempt. We want to punish him for his stylish indiscre?ons but have empathy for a tortured history. In season six Don befriends Dr. Arnold Rosen and his wife who live in the same apartment building. This leads to an affair with the wife and an interes?ng piece of wisdom from the unaware good doctor. In one ironic and accurate statement he tells Don that, “People will do anything to alleviate their anxiety.” 12 9 Much has been wriIen on the drinking in Mad Men. Dissa?sfac?on masked in frequent celebra?on seems to be the primary mo?vator for the generous imbibing. As a reader of everything John Cheever and Richard Yates ever published, I have to advance a related theory and that is many of the men from that ?me were experiencing post-­‐
trauma?c stress from World War Two and Korea. Richard Yates’ short story, The B.A.R. Man, is but one example of how these guys came home from the w a r , l a r g e l y c o n f o r m e d , a n d decompressed with booze. B.A.R. is short for the Browning Automa?c Rifle, but stands in for the veteran’s drinking habits. Having served in the war holding this heavy weapon he now conquers ManhaIan’s drinking establishments believing that the days when he was scared shitless in combat were the best he ever had. Mad Men does a great job telling a similar storyline through the character of Freddy Rumsfeld who was a killer of many Germans, came home to write light and fanciful adver?sing copy, and then baIled alcoholism. I o`en wonder what the reac?on would be if Mad Men were broadcast in the ?mes it portrays. Would those actually living then recognize themselves? Like Mr. Weiner, I was born in 1965 and also like him, I wonder if the obsession with the period is one based on and nurtured by shallow representa?ons rather than its reality. In the end, I believe Mr. Weiner is celebra?ng the era while exposing the contradic?ons and the confusion felt by those who lived it. On a personal level the show has accomplished something I never expected. I now have an even deeper apprecia?on for my parents. My father was thirty-­‐five in 1960, a lawyer with a bar in his office and one in our paneled basement. My mother was twenty-­‐five, who gave up a start in journalism to raise four of us. I have a clipping from the Winnipeg Free Press society page from 1961 showing them at a big event. The beehive hairstyle piled high on my mother’s head dominates the photo but then you see the fur wrap and cigareIes. I thought of them and their rela?onship throughout the series. This is what Weiner is a`er. The show is a subtle and subversive command to reflect and connect with our past. 14 That’s a Wrap It is curious that the show has been delivered via television, the medium that has been supposedly declining in relevance since its introduc?on. The fact is television has been the essen?al storyteller of our ?mes and is now reinvigorated by Mad Men and its backer AMC. Soon the last episodes will play. We will gather in front of our large flat screens just as we have since the ?me televisions were smaller and powered by tubes that needed ?me to warm up. Don will finalize his quest or not. He will share sage, yet flawed, wisdom we have come to puzzle over and quote. We will hang on his every word and ac?on because we are looking for answers. Mad Men has made us reconsider our rela?onship with the past, and in so doing, challenged us to determine how different it is from the present. When the final credits roll we will all agree that MaIhew Weiner has proven thesis. Our own anxie?es, hopes, complexi?es and dreams are not that different at all. Author’s Note For those who will miss the series I encourage you to read what is clearly source material for Weiner’s work. Start with The Organiza0on Man by William H. Whyte previously men?oned. In terms of fic?on, pick up Rona Jaffe who Jeff Swystun captures the plight of the workingwoman in The Best of President & CMO Everything. Consume John Cheever’s short stories that 416.471.4655 delightully skewer the fallacies of man at work and man at home. Engorge on Richard Yates’ work that brings a dark brooding to an era largely characterized as bright, simple and op?mis?c. Cheers! 15