Natasha Vargas-Cooper. Do I detect a little bit of pomposity in such a uniquely important sounding name? Let’s see, believing Natasha has a handle on what it was like in the that time of advertising is a little like thinking Buffalo Bob Smith knew farming. “What’s a crop” he might ask. The fact that MMen is growing in popularity has more to do with some nice character development than anybody having a feel for what it was like in the late 50′s and 60′s. The effete, pompous boys and girls of the Ad Biz lived in the 80′s when money was pouring into to their wallets like BP oil gushing out of the hole in the Gulf. If you want to talk about A Holes, it was them. The ones in the early 60′s weren’t sweating from testosterone over use, but, rather, from the fear of losing accounts and jobs. Of course, there were also guys like Charlie Brower, President of BBDO with a fiduciary relationship with Lucky Strike who insisted that any creative director coming into a meeting with the Lucky guys would be loaded for bear, unlike Don, who pulled a campaign idea out of his butt. Never happened in real life, honey. Charlie never strayed from his wife because he was married to his business. You think Bill Bernback would have found anything in common with Don? Think Mary Wells would have? Or Jerry Della Femina? A guy like Draper would have lasted with real ad guys about two New York seconds. Don even screwed up the Hilton presentation with a theme line that was stupid on so many levels. “Expect the world” is more Hilton’s style in the real world. In fact, Jim Courtright, ad genius in his own right fathered that line back in 1992. The closest thing to an advertising guru today is a guy named Gibson Carothers.
You crave a little historical perspective? A little real world historical perspective? Okay. Guys in advertising at upper levels back then were often WWII veterans. The running joke in the ad biz was:
So a management supervisor (big shot account guy) is at his therapist and in the middle of the session the therapist says, “Bill, you led Marines in WW2 on Iwo Jima and never got rattled, never shook, never started crying. Bill answered, “Yeah, but on Iwo, I never lost an account.”
I’m sure Natasha tried hard and did her research, but she reminds me of Inspector Clouseau. When it comes to the real MadMen of the late 50′s and early 60′s, the poor girl doesn’t have a clue.
A lot of the great writers back then were Jewish boys writing about their mothers, not worrying about office conquests. If they read about Piggy and Ralph, Lords and Flies in high school, that was the extent of their literary exploration. Ogilvy probably was the exception, I’ll grant you that. But most of the boys from the rich families became account guys cause they weren’t smart enough to be creatives. They made their twenty grand a year and liked it. And were lousy golfers, too.
All the other insights in the girl’s new book aren’t insights at all. They’re deductions which if were cheese would be full of holes.
Want a historical predication. The Supremes will come down on Arizona’s side 5 to 4, at which point Obama’s lawyers will spend the next two years trying to outflank the law with executive orders and help from the Federal trade and commerce commissions.
If John Caples (of “they laughed when I sat down” fame) saw Cooper’s educated speculation on Advertising the times and the events of that period, he’d have sent her back where she came from. And told her to go into Public Relations.
The Don Drapers did babysit clients because they generally were the best people in the agency with people. But when they weren’t doing that, they were thinking of ideas as backups in case their people came up empty. If any creative director spent his time chasing skirts, he’d end out on his butt.
How do I know all this? My father worked with Brower at BBDO. I spend 20 years creative directoring in Chicago. My son is an ACD today. It truly does help writing about something if you know what you’re talking about. Natasha I doubt could hit an account guy with a push pin at 20 feet.
