Mad men in 2010

I admit it; I’m obsessed with Mad Men. I know I’m not the only one. I suspect part of my fascination is because I work in advertising. The stories are good and the characters are interesting but for me I love seeing what went on before and comparing it to what I see every day at work.


Things that are different between Mad Men and current agency life:

Clothes- of course there are the obvious style changes that you see in clothing and hair from that time period compared to today. But what I see is the change in attitude on what is acceptable to wear.

Today many of the offices I have been around tend to adopt a more casual atmosphere and dress code. The feeling is that creative people need to be comfortable and to relax to do their job. No one would think to ask them to come to work in suits or dresses.

Secretaries- I can’t remember the last time I have been in an office where someone was referred to as the secretary. Today everyone has administrative assistants to help. Many bosses today that have assistants treat them as assistants to help with projects and other management tasks. They wouldn’t waste the admins time having them type letters. Computers have made it easier for managers to do their own typing and that plays a part. But Don Draper would think it was beneath him to use the typewriter.

Smoking/drinking- I know plenty of advertising people that have their vices. But the overall attitude today is that you try to keep them out of the office. It wouldn’t be acceptable to light up in the office or take a drink during working hours. They wait till they leave the office for those things.

Most of these changes can be attributed to changes in our society and not just advertising. Especially obvious changes are there are no minorities in the office and Peggy is the only woman working that isn’t a secretary.

That is what makes this so fascinating to me is that it’s easy to ignore how things were especially before you were born and listen when people talk about the good old days. But to see them played out in my industry against today’s standards reminds me that maybe today isn’t that bad.