Mad Men returns (and enthralls) in its fourth season
Reading my Facebook feed recently, I encountered a status update by another ad copywriter who had recently been laid off. “What would Don Draper do?” he wondered.
“Get fall-down drunk and take home a cocktail waitress,” I chuckled to myself. But in the days that followed, the phrase stuck with me. A quick Google search shows it has a certain cachet on the web, too. There’s even this blog in which the author, pretending to be Draper, answers questions from readers. Here’s a sample:
Dear Don Draper, How do you wear a pocket square?
If I wear one at all, I use white cotton or linen squares and fold them in what’s called a Presidential fold: halved twice at right angles into quarters. And don’t be a dandy – it’s meant to be used.
In spite of his profoundly dysfunctional personal life, the smoldering Mad Men anti-hero radiates a cool self-assurance that eludes most copywriters I’ve ever met. Maybe that’s why we tend to view him in the same adulatory light in which minivan-driving, middle-class soccer moms view Oprah. To say we worship him would be to overstate the matter – but only a little bit.
Of course, “Don Draper” is a phony; an illusion created by the conflicted man behind the name, Richard Whitman. No wonder Draper is so good at persuading people to buy his ideas – his entire life has been one long con. Still, we copywriters can’t help but exalt the Draper persona. Supremely confident, unfailingly smooth and always in charge, it’s everything we aren’t.
Take me, for example: I gravitated toward a career in writing largely because I feel more comfortable behind a keyboard than in front of other people. After a mercifully brief stint in door-to-door fundraising 10 years ago, I figured out I wasn’t blessed with the gift of persuasion. Giving a sales pitch, I make Old Gil Gunderson look like Richard Branson – and that’s on a good day.
So I understood why my fellow copywriter invoked Draper in his Facebook status. Don Draper may not be our Jesus – he’s far too flawed for that. But look no further than this brilliant pitch Draper made to Kodak for evidence that, even though he’s purely fictional, Draper has earned his place among the gods of advertising.
Tags: Advertising, current events, fun
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September 3, 2010—Are you ready for some football?
