They were a long time away. And now they're back. But they still seem to be some distance from the place where the real-life madness was happening just across town. The contrast might have looked something like this:
The scene opens with Roger Sterling walking into the lobby at 20 West 43rd Street. He’s on his way to join a golfing buddy–an Account Management Supervisor with Doyle Dane Bernbach–at his office. They’re going out for drinks. Roger steps onto the elevator and after a moment he’s joined by a Jewish Copywriter and an African-American Art Director. He knows the Jew is a Copywriter from the way he’s talking about writing the end of a TV commercial. He knows he’s a Jew from the yarmulke on his head (holy days are on). From the conversation and industry jargon he guesses the black guy is an Art Director. The ethnicity he doesn’t have to guess.
The Art Director, a big guy, wearing a dashiki and standing a head taller than Roger, nods to him, bobbing head accentuated by a huge Afro:
“Hey, man. Howyadoin’?”
This does not put Roger at ease. His rides up with these two, but since he’s a bit flustered he gets off one stop too soon, steps out of the elevator and into the Creative Department. He heads for the Receptionist (also black) and into the path of an Asian Art Director, identifiable as an Art Director by the way she’s talking to the Copywriter with her.
But it’s the Copywriter that really rattles Roger.
The guy’s head is shaved (except for a scalp lock at the back), he has a large white mark in the middle of his forehead. He’s wearing full-length saffron robes. He is barefoot. Hari Krishna!! AMC does not permit profanity, but we all know that Roger is a profane man. “WTF!??!!!” Roger says, now leaning against the wall and clutching at his chest. Another copywriter (shoulder-length hair, torn jeans and sneakers) comes out of his office and asks Roger if he’s OK. Offers him a joint.
Cut to Roger in the ICU at Bellevue. He has tubes coming and going. Fade out.
This scene – the fictional world of Sterling Cooper meets the real world of Doyle Dane Bernbach – will never happen. But the clash of cultures is true-to-life. The 60s world of Doyle Dane was incomprehensible to the Roger Sterlings of the time, and largely unreachable by his agency’s creative people. We wonder if the series’ creator is aware of this.
Matthew Weiner is brilliant and obviously obsessed with his amazing creation and the story it pulled us into. But along with kudos come abuses. Creative people of his caliber are always being “interpreted.” Often by people who don’t know what they’re talking about. But an environment so realistically fashioned in such minute detail invites – demands – observations from the real world in which it's set by the people who do know what they’re talking about. If the haircuts and the lamps and the ladies underwear and the behaviors are so true-to-life, then true life as it was then will step in to observe the fantasy.
Mr. Weiner was on CBS This Morning recently. He was asked if the 60s were “The Golden Age of Advertising”. His response was: “According to them it was.” Interesting. “Them” who? His advisors, we assume, since Matthew wasn’t there himself. And who are his advisors? Obviously the people who in broad strokes shaped the world of Sterling Cooper, a place that (to this point in the story) has had no part in – or concept of – the “creative revolution”, a place of “rigid rules” that bore no resemblance to the Doyle Dane of that or any other day.
In fact it was Doyle Dane Bernbach that started the “creative revolution”, turning the advertising business and a part of our society on its ear. Doyle Dane called a client’s car “ugly” (it was). Also “defective”. The Volkswagen ad “Lemon” highlighted the defect and turned it into a perfect reason to buy a VW. The agency demeaned another client’s service as lesser than its competitor: “Avis. We’re only number two”. They were.
Business boomed.
In 1964 the team of Sid Myers and Stan Lee created “Daisy Girl”, the TV spot that changed political advertising forever. And Doyle Dane people created positive political ads for other candidates that continued to win campaigns and make news. All of this came from a place far more freewheeling and wilder than “Sterling Cooper”. No rules. Everybody welcome – if you had the talent to do Doyle Dane-caliber work.
So, is it possible that Mr. Weiner is unaware of all of this, his eyes locked on a “rigid rules” workplace where Doyle Dane work isn’t possible? Or even conceivable? Or maybe he’s just being coy. He’s skilled at that too.
All of these scenarios may be advanced in the new season. Peggy Olsen is a Copywriter on the move. My guess is that sometime during the coming weeks she will be asking herself if she has the talent to work at Doyle Dane Bernbach. She will put her book together and come knocking on our door. Don Draper? The powerful presence and good looks wouldn’t get him in the door and he’s smart enough to know it. So he rolls on at Sterling Cooper, a Creative Director perhaps with a creeping suspicion he isn’t all that creative.
The scene opens with Roger Sterling walking into the lobby at 20 West 43rd Street. He’s on his way to join a golfing buddy–an Account Management Supervisor with Doyle Dane Bernbach–at his office. They’re going out for drinks. Roger steps onto the elevator and after a moment he’s joined by a Jewish Copywriter and an African-American Art Director. He knows the Jew is a Copywriter from the way he’s talking about writing the end of a TV commercial. He knows he’s a Jew from the yarmulke on his head (holy days are on). From the conversation and industry jargon he guesses the black guy is an Art Director. The ethnicity he doesn’t have to guess.
The Art Director, a big guy, wearing a dashiki and standing a head taller than Roger, nods to him, bobbing head accentuated by a huge Afro:
“Hey, man. Howyadoin’?”
This does not put Roger at ease. His rides up with these two, but since he’s a bit flustered he gets off one stop too soon, steps out of the elevator and into the Creative Department. He heads for the Receptionist (also black) and into the path of an Asian Art Director, identifiable as an Art Director by the way she’s talking to the Copywriter with her.
But it’s the Copywriter that really rattles Roger.
The guy’s head is shaved (except for a scalp lock at the back), he has a large white mark in the middle of his forehead. He’s wearing full-length saffron robes. He is barefoot. Hari Krishna!! AMC does not permit profanity, but we all know that Roger is a profane man. “WTF!??!!!” Roger says, now leaning against the wall and clutching at his chest. Another copywriter (shoulder-length hair, torn jeans and sneakers) comes out of his office and asks Roger if he’s OK. Offers him a joint.
Cut to Roger in the ICU at Bellevue. He has tubes coming and going. Fade out.
This scene – the fictional world of Sterling Cooper meets the real world of Doyle Dane Bernbach – will never happen. But the clash of cultures is true-to-life. The 60s world of Doyle Dane was incomprehensible to the Roger Sterlings of the time, and largely unreachable by his agency’s creative people. We wonder if the series’ creator is aware of this.
Matthew Weiner is brilliant and obviously obsessed with his amazing creation and the story it pulled us into. But along with kudos come abuses. Creative people of his caliber are always being “interpreted.” Often by people who don’t know what they’re talking about. But an environment so realistically fashioned in such minute detail invites – demands – observations from the real world in which it's set by the people who do know what they’re talking about. If the haircuts and the lamps and the ladies underwear and the behaviors are so true-to-life, then true life as it was then will step in to observe the fantasy.
Mr. Weiner was on CBS This Morning recently. He was asked if the 60s were “The Golden Age of Advertising”. His response was: “According to them it was.” Interesting. “Them” who? His advisors, we assume, since Matthew wasn’t there himself. And who are his advisors? Obviously the people who in broad strokes shaped the world of Sterling Cooper, a place that (to this point in the story) has had no part in – or concept of – the “creative revolution”, a place of “rigid rules” that bore no resemblance to the Doyle Dane of that or any other day.
In fact it was Doyle Dane Bernbach that started the “creative revolution”, turning the advertising business and a part of our society on its ear. Doyle Dane called a client’s car “ugly” (it was). Also “defective”. The Volkswagen ad “Lemon” highlighted the defect and turned it into a perfect reason to buy a VW. The agency demeaned another client’s service as lesser than its competitor: “Avis. We’re only number two”. They were.
Business boomed.
In 1964 the team of Sid Myers and Stan Lee created “Daisy Girl”, the TV spot that changed political advertising forever. And Doyle Dane people created positive political ads for other candidates that continued to win campaigns and make news. All of this came from a place far more freewheeling and wilder than “Sterling Cooper”. No rules. Everybody welcome – if you had the talent to do Doyle Dane-caliber work.
So, is it possible that Mr. Weiner is unaware of all of this, his eyes locked on a “rigid rules” workplace where Doyle Dane work isn’t possible? Or even conceivable? Or maybe he’s just being coy. He’s skilled at that too.
All of these scenarios may be advanced in the new season. Peggy Olsen is a Copywriter on the move. My guess is that sometime during the coming weeks she will be asking herself if she has the talent to work at Doyle Dane Bernbach. She will put her book together and come knocking on our door. Don Draper? The powerful presence and good looks wouldn’t get him in the door and he’s smart enough to know it. So he rolls on at Sterling Cooper, a Creative Director perhaps with a creeping suspicion he isn’t all that creative.
In an earlier episode Don didn't understand "Lemon". In fact, he "hated" the ad. In the first episode of this new season he covets the American Airlines account. Back in that day when rumors were flying that the airline was looking for another agency, Doyle Dane created this ad (full-page, New York Times) for its client, American. Compare it with Don's lame "Equal Opportunity" gag. It comes from a far distant planet and totally different level of the craft.
The fictional world of Sterling Cooper vs. the real world of Doyle Dane Bernbach.
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