“MadMen”, now there’s a show a lady can sink her teeth into. Unfortunately, what masquerades as an accurate portrayal of a 60′s agency is better suited for Fluff, the cocker spaniel to munch on than the viewing audience to waste its time watching.
I suspect their scripts are written by people whose sense of truth and correctness is about equal to a broken clock that’s right twice a day. You know,if real ad writers did the quality of work the script writers do, they’d be out on their ears walking the streets faster than you can say, “Bill Bernbach.
On the other hand, if you want totally fabricated stories about men and women in heat in the 60′s who work in advertising, well, licking lollipops Batman, this show is for you.
But if you want an accurate look at what it was really like in a 60′s agency, you won’t find it with MadMen.
It about as useful a depiction of ad life in he 60′s as, say, a Britney Spears book about child care would be useful to new parents, even with a forward from her sister.
Ogilvy, Doyle Dane, BBDO, Mary Wells, Grey, Della Femina. They were run by single minded people who’s every ounce of energy was spent on coming up with better ideas than the next agency;one probably positioned to pounce, and, given the opportunity, to steal their biggest account.
The touchstones of these agencies were great, original, award winning concepts; the kind that comes not from inspiration, but sticky, nasty, sweat. If sex ever caused sweat in a real ad man or woman, chances are they were at home in the evening after a couple of cc’s, imbibing spirits in the hopes they’d relax a bit and stop fixating on their chance of being laid off if an account was lost; instead morphing into a decidely more Romantic mood.
Believe me, the numbers of folders in their briefcase were a pretty good indicator that the evenings weren’t spent scheming how the next day could be spent nailing a pert little secretary on the table inside the locked creative director’s door.
In my humble opinion, MadMen’ has low ratings because deep down people are smart enough to be able to separate fact from fiction.
Frankly, if you believe the pap the writers of “MadMen” continue to gladly feed you, well, how politely can I say it; you deserve a job in the mail room.
