Pining Over the "Mad Men" Days: Overlooked Wisdom from Advertising's Golden Era đ„
Among television dramas capturing mid-century business culture, Mad Men stands as a nostalgic time capsule. While weâd gladly leave behind the casual sexism and cigarette haze, some sparkling gems from the Sterling Cooper era deserve resurrection.
For the uninitiated, the series explores advertising executives in 1960s New York, unpacking themes of identity, societal change, and unbridled ambition â all lubricated by a steady stream of whisky and questionable workplace humour. While others have waxed lyrical about the âMarketing Lessonsâ and âStorytelling Principlesâ present in the show, here are a few workplace wonders I think get overlooked and might just be missing today.
The Art of Telling Clients Theyâre Wrong (Politely)
Don Draper didnât just pitch â he decimated client hesitation. Remember his legendary Belle Jolie lipstick scene? When the client doesnât immediately buy in, Don doesnât hold back. He declares, âYouâre a non-believerâ and âWhy should we waste our time on Kabuki?â
Todayâs agencies far too often trade bold creativity for endless revisions and watered-down ideas. We cave too quickly, sacrificing boundary-pushing work for the sake of a quiet life. The modern ad world is complex â tighter budgets, greater competition â but thatâs no excuse for creative whimpery.
The Mad Men ethos wasnât about arrogance, but quiet confidence. If weâre genuinely the experts and have sound logic, we should defend our creative vision with more conviction. Ultimately, this will lead to greater respect and trust between both parties.
Beyond Zoom: Remembering Human Connection
Hybrid working certainly has its perks, but weâve sacrificed genuine human interaction between colleagues and even our clients. Mad Men portrayed business as relationship-building, not mere transaction.
Weâve swapped out intimate dinners and one-on-one drinks for mass pub gatherings and impersonal video calls. Meeting your boss and their partner for dinner was once a professional norm; now, to some, itâs an anxiety-inducing scenario requiring subsequent therapy.
Modern work culture champions flexibility, but at what cost? Over time weâve lost the nuanced art of personal connection â those casual conversations that truly help us get to know colleagues and even clients beyond email and forced fun events.
Personal Space: Where Creativity Actually Happens
Open-plan offices, listen up. The Mad Men era understood that creatives need both collaboration and solitude. While getting a room with your name on the door is cool, it also allowed you to ponder in silence without interruption.
Contemporary workplace design preaches constant interaction, but research shows meaningful work happens in uninterrupted stretches. Creatives need those long, unbroken periods to wrestle with a brief or chase an elusive idea. This is partly why working from home is so popular.
The solution? A hybrid model: open collaborative spaces complemented by bookable private offices (meeting rooms donât count). Not mahogany-doored fiefdoms guarded by a secretary, but well-equipped sanctuaries you can claim when deep work calls during those times you actually schlep to the office.
Utilising the Mad Men Mindset for Todayâs Workplace
Iâm not advocating wholesale resurrection of 1960s workplace culture â far from it. But in our rush to modernise, weâve overlooked timeless principles of human connection, creative integrity, and professional respect.
Don Draper would likely survey todayâs corporate landscape with a mix of disdain and bewilderment. Where once creativity was a razor-sharp weapon wielded with precision, now it seems dulled by committee consensus and digital bureaucracy. Heâd see a world that talks endlessly about innovation but rarely dares to truly reinvent â a cardinal sin in his book of professional gospel.
But maybe the best lesson we can take from Mad Men is this: while the world around us changes, some principles remain timeless. And while weâre not about to start chain-smoking in the office, perhaps itâs time we brought back a little of the confidence and craft that made Mad Men so unforgettable.