AMV's Peter Mead: Mad Men and Me
The AMV BBDO co-founder and long-time 'adman' talks about the show's success and the happier side of the business.
With the Mad Men finale upon us (this Sunday), fans of the show are gearing up for the ultimate conclusion of one of the best box set series to hit our screens. Based around ad agency Sterling Cooper and starring fictional protagonist Don Draper, the show has offered an interesting interpretation of the industry in the 1960s over the past eight years. But how has it been received in adland during that time?
For AMV BBDO co-founder Peter Mead, it's offered a wonderful window on the world of advertising, but says that we should remember the fun side of the business of working with clients too.
What seems like only yesterday Vicky Allard, who looks after PR at our agency, rang me and said that the Radio Times had sent in a DVD of a new American series about advertising called Mad Men.
I watched a bit of the first episode and rang Vicky and said I don't think that I can review it because it wasn't very good and it wouldn't catch on!
That was about as prescient a remark as my comment in the early 90s when the world economically was coming to an end and I was quoted as saying: “Recession, what recession?” The depths of the subsequent recession were probably as profound as the addiction of Mad Men aficionados and of course it became one of the most celebrated box sets of all time.
As a rapidly ageing adman who has spent the whole of his working life in advertising I recognise a lot of the 60s and 70s characteristics - the first breakthrough by women out of the secretarial swamp and into the Creative Department (although Dorothy L Sayers, the famed novelist, had a great career as an advertising copywriter), the almost slavish dedication to drink all forms and the lad-ish behaviour that today would occasion a trip to the magistrates court, or a P45 at least.
What is missing from the whole beautifully-written, beautifully-shot, beautifully-acted saga is the sense of fun and excitement that I have enjoyed over many years I've spent in the advertising business. It seems to me that on Mad Men, unless you were drunk or undressed (or both), a good time was very much at a premium.
The reality is that the business was endlessly fascinating, the people really interesting and the problems that you faced and solved on a daily basis were often both intriguing and rewarding.
Before Don Draper hangs up his copywriter’s pen and pulls up his perennially horizontal trousers I hope he and the rest of the cast manage to laugh their way through the remaining episodes before they become another free view on Amazon Prime Instant Video.
As well as all that please, please can Roger Sterling lose the most absurd moustache on television since the late Rick Mayall’s half glued on effort in his role as Flashheart in Blackadder?
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