How to Get Ahead in Advertising

Is it the era when men wore hats and women wore skirts, the often excoriating view of consumer capitalism, the brilliance of the writing or the quality of the acting the makes 'Mad Men' a leading brand in in modern televison? Who wouldn't want to start drinking in the office at 11 in the morning and smoke their lungs out all day while working? 'Mad Men' works brilliantly as satire, entertainment and, more profoundly, as a mirror to corporate and real life asking us to question what is real and what is appearance. Don Draper is highly sucessful and creative at the same time as he is miserable and conventional; as an ad man on Madison Avenue his job is to both bend reality by selling an illusory view of the world and to make the his target market feel comfortable and secure in a familiar milieu. 'Sterling Cooper' is about making money, not art; sure, Don gets to be more creative in a single week then most of us manage in a year but it's always with a view to the bottom line - there's no room for luxuries such as 'Art for Art's sake when promoting Lucky Strike. The characters are all too human: petty at work and at home, ethically compromised status obsessed and superficial in many aspects. However, it's also fair to say that the 'Mad Men' are funny, generous, considerate and admirable when they want to be. The series explains more, amuses more and moves more than most other tv dramas. A complete box set is essential to prepare for the coming fifth series; 'thetvreviewguy' suggests if you want to know how the mythmakers are the hidden persuaders in selling us all our daily bread, watch 'Mad Men'.