23 posts tagged “mad men”

If I had too few quotes last week, I have too many this week. We got to see three really rough meetings this episode: the first between the Creative Team, the second with the client and the third between Account and Creative.

The ongoing plot line this season involves Sterling Cooper working with Conrad Hilton, who happens to be a VERY demanding client (calling Don at home on multiple occasions). Don is not happy with the work his team brings him and feels that it's not hitting the mark:

Draper: The tag is flat.

Peggy: Well that one is yours.

Draper: That doesn’t make it good. If it’s bad don’t use it.

Ouch.

Then when they finally get a campaign they feel is solid and present it too Hilton. The tycoon is unimpressed and asks for the room to be cleared so he and Don can talk one on one:

Draper: This is a good campaign, one of the best. It’s witty, it’s modern, it’s eye catching. It will change your business.

Hilton: Calm down. I’m going to be very honest with you. I don’t think folks do that often. Probably scared.

Draper: Or they trust my work.

Hilton: You want me to just say yes to everything you do?

Draper: Most ad men believe that clients are the thing that gets in the way of good work. I’ve never experienced that.

Hilton: You did not give me what I wanted. I’m deeply disappointed Don.

Draper: This is a great campaign.

Hilton: Fine. What do you want from me love? Your work is good. But when I say I want the moon, I expect the moon.

Double ouch.

Finally, Sterling gets wind of the meeting with Hilton and confronts Don:

Sterling: I heard Conrad Hilton left this building in a huff yesterday.

Draper: Who told you that?

Sterling: You’ve got your face so deep in Hilton’s lap you’re ignoring everything else.

Draper: Everything’s under control

Sterling: You won’t even let me meet the man. What do you think Accounts does, besides limit your brilliance?  

Draper: I’d tell you, but I don’t want to hurt your feelings.

Once again, all of these words could be uttered in many meetings that I am in every day. It is shocking how things have not changed.

I especially love Sterling's line about limiting creative's brilliance. I have to find a way to work that into a conversation.

Really? One scene in the office?

OK, no ad related scenes = no ad related quote from FAU.

Sigh.

I suppose this show had to have a crappy episode at some point.

Still, there were two interesting non-ad related lines:

- "There is an old rule in politics, if you can't win, delay."

- Betty telling Sally that every kiss with someone is a shadow of the first one.

Oh, and did they really have to make Pete even MORE of a creep?? Seriously, not all Account guys are like that.

Overall, this one get's an F.

This one needs little introduction. Sterling and Draper get on to the elevator in the morning and after exchanging pleasantries this ensues:

Sterling: Ogilvy wrote a book. I got the galleys. They want a quote or something. Advertising is already up there with lawyers as the most reviled, this is not going to help.

Draper: It’ll help him.

Sterling: It’s called “Confessions of an Ad Man.”

Draper: I like the title.

Sterling: Please. It’s the book everybody writes. Only he got it published. It should be called “1,000 Reasons Why I’m So Great.”

Indeed. Ogilvy's first (and second) books are often cited as self congratulatory works of shameless self promotion. But then again, it's Ogilvy, he excelled at that (for sage words from the man himself, see this clip). 

This exchange made me think of two things.

First, when I started in this business I had no clue who any of these big names were. One night at an after work happy hour my first boss was telling me that he use to work for Wunderman. I asked him what that was and he explained to me that Lester Wunderman was the father of direct marketing. Then he said, "You should read his book. He makes David Ogilvy look like a fucking Boy Scout." (Later in my career I spent four excellent years at Wunderman New York.)

Second, I realized this week that my job is more similar a lawyers than I like to admit. I write briefs, I am always negotiating, I stand in front of people and try to make an argument for an idea and I work with clients. But I also have a keen understanding of client service, which is something most lawyers lack.

This was a big one. Last weeks episode of Mad Men was stunningly brilliant on a number of levels. But once again, I found a moment of pure truth for those of us who actually work in the biz.

Here is the set up: the British firm that purchased Sterling Cooper at the end of season two sends there executives "across the pond" (on the even of July 4th of all days) for an important meeting. In said meeting, a young rising star from London named Guy MacKendrick informs the New York office that he will be the new president with Creative, Account and Media reporting into him directly. Noticeably absent from the new org chart is Roger Sterling ("merely an oversight" they are told).

Later in the day Sterling is complaining about this oversight to Cooper and takes a moment to reflect on the new boss:

Sterling: I'm being punished for making my job look easy. Still, that Guy. He has a spark. He's a pure Account Man.

Cooper: And what is that job all about?

Sterling: I don't know...it's about listening and never saying what you really think.

Cooper: No, it's about letting go so you can get what you want.

[Cue FAU's brain exploding.]

I know that this does not mean much to all of you. If you watched the show you may have glossed over this line or simply saw it as the sage advice from an elder. But for me those 11 words may as well be my job description. Account managers are always looking for compromise in one form or another and we constantly have to choose when to let go of the little things so we can win the bigger battles.

I have no clue who writes these "inside baseball" lines, but they know there shit. 

 

My disdain for all things Boston is well noted. So is my love for Mad Men. So you can imagine this caused a little internal conflict:

For the record, I thought this was brilliant (especially Joey McIntyre as Rogah). As the guys at American Copywriter said about Mad Men, "its not flattery" (paraphrasing).

This is via Ad Rants.  

A lot of times advertising is about finding new opportunities, new products, new markets, new target audiences. And sometimes advertising is about making the most out of the hand you are dealt. And when you are sharing the title "Head of Accounts" it's imperative that you make every client count and give them every opportunity to succeed.

And so it was this week that Pete Campbell discovered that his client Admiral Appliances had flat TV sales nationally, but was quietly gaining market share in major urban centers among black consumers. There seemed to be no apparent reason for this trend, so Pete assumes that if there is an up-tick with no effort, some targeted ads in Jet and Ebony will drive sales even further (all for a lower media budget).

He pitches this idea to the client thinking it is a win-win: they keep media spend flat, but they reach more people and drive sales in a growing market. It's a no brainier. Except it's not. The client scoffs at the idea of doing separate creative for the audience:

Client #1: A Negro ad and a white ad? So, Campbell, you are making twice the ads for us now.

Campbell: No. Do them together. Integrate it.

Client #2: I don’t think that’s legal

Campbell: Of course it’s legal.

Client #1: Look, this conversation is not worth having. Who’s to say that Negros aren’t buying Admiral Televisions because they think white people want them?

Needless to say Pete is stunned by this reaction. Here he is handing his clients a golden opportunity and they are worried about versions of creative?

But nothing is ever that simple on this show, and in another scene Pete gets called into one of those meetings you NEVER want to get called into. He enters Cooper's office to find him there with Sterling and the CFO.

Sterling: If it isn’t Martin Luther King. I should drop kick you off the roof.

Cooper: Admiral Television has no interest in becoming a Colored television company.

Campbell: But they are. It seems illogical to me that they would reject an opportunity to make more money. But then again, I’m in advertising.

Cooper: It’s a sensitive issue, businesses hate that.

Sterling:  In account terms, are you aware of the number of hand jobs I’m going to have to give?

Campbell: Am I being taken off the account?

Sterling: I’m going to have to pretend I had you killed!!

Campbell: Sales are flat, I had to do something.

Sterling: I don’t know if anyone’s ever told you that half the time this business comes down to “I don’t like that guy”.

Now I could opine on the racial politics of these exchanges and discuss how they fit neatly into the context of the times, but that it not what I do on this blog. Here I put things in terms of advertising. And once again Mad Men shows the audience what it is like to work in this industry.

Yes, we come up with ideas for campaigns, and products, and media buys, and target audiences. And yes, clients shoot these ideas down ALL THE TIME for the most trivial reasons: some VP feels the brand MUST advertise in XYZ magazine because he likes it, or "we can't support that with current systems" even though they know it will double sales, or "that does not feel right for the brand".

I love that last one, especially coming from a brand manager who owns the brand. Hey, guess what, you own the brand so if you say its "right" for the brand we can make it work. But alas these are often subjective decisions made with disregard for actual business considerations.

One final thought: despite his harsh tone, Sterling is right: this business is often about "I don't like that guy" so you have to be careful where you step. Just another awful reality of my job.   

To call this a dormant blog is an understatement. There is way too much going on including a pending move to a new house and a lot of business travel (more on all that later).

That said, I feel most guilty that I have neglected my basic responsibility to give all ten loyal readers of this blog some quotes (with context) from Mad Men each week. Here is a catch-up of the last three weeks:

Episode 2:

Don is talking to a potential client representing the much maligned developers who plan on demolishing Penn Station to build Madison Square Garden. They are getting beat up in the media and are looking to Sterling Cooper to help turn things around. Don explains that since the project is inevitable, all they need is a shift in focus:

Don: Let's also say that change is neither good or bad, it simply is. It can be greeted with terror or joy, a tantrum that says "I want it the way it was" or a dance that says "let's try something new".

Client: Would you draw the line at 50%?

Don: I'm not drawing the line at all. P.R. people understand this but they can never execute it. If you don't like what's being said, change the conversation.

Client: What is that conversation?

Don: I was in California, everything is new and its clean. The people are filled with hope. New York City is in decay. But Madison Square Garden is the beginning of a new city on a hill.

This one is particularly appropriate in the age of social media. Brands are always being talked about, it is up to the people who control those brands to guide the conversations in a way that benefits them. That is part of what every marketer does.

Side note: do you like how Draper uses "city on a hill" and California in the same sentence? 

Episode 3:

Most of the Sterling Cooper Team is at a Kentucky Derby party hosted by Sterling. Of course there are a lot of high placed executives in attendance:

Pete: That portly fellow in the Glen plaid, second at DuPont. The one next to him, Pan Am.

Don: Don't hand out your card.

This is a Creative reminding an Account Manager that no matter how much he wants to sell there is are times you need to be a bit more subtle. This is a hard lesson and it is one that I am still working on.

Bonus quote from this ep.: when Peggy learns that the Pete and Ken are going to the party while she and the other writers have to work over the weekend she proclaims: "They hate Creative."

Episode 4:

The clients asked for an ad to look like the opening of "Bye Bye Birdie". The agency gave them exactly what they wanted. But once the client saw it, they didn't like it.

Now, unlike MOST clients they admitted the ad was an execution on their flawed direction (believe me, most clients blame the agency in that situation), but that is cold comfort to Sal who directed the spot and blames himself:

Sal: I figured I'd bring myself to the woodshed.

Don: It must be horrible having a client insists on something and then change their mind once they've seen it. I hope it never happens to me.

Indeed. It really does suck to give the client EXACTLY what they asked for just to have them throw it back on the pile.
 
Once again, the fictional world of Sterling Cooper looks a lot like the real world that FAU lives in every day.

 

There were at least four brilliant quotes on Mad Men tonight. I'll dive into all of them tomorrow, but with limited comment I wanted to give you one of the four tonight:

Clients don't always know what's best. -- Peggy Olson

Amen to that. 

Once again I see shades of my own experiences in this show.

Before Mad Men, when people asked me what I did for a living I tried to explain my job in terms of what I did. "I work at an ad agency, but I am not a writer or a designer. I'm in Account Services so my job is to make the Creatives and the Clients happy, all the time, while telling both that they need to compromise."

Now when people ask I say "You know that show Mad Men? I do what Pete Campbell does." And then they respond "The creepy guy...I don't like him." Exactly, no one likes the guy who forces you to compromise.

This week Pete Campbell is (finally, in his mind) promoted to Head of Accounts, only to discover that he shares the job with his polar opposite Ken Cosgrove (Campbell is ambitious, Cosgrove is laid back, almost lazy).

Pete is recounting a meeting to his wife, in which Senior Management handed out the client assignment to the Co-Heads of Accounts:

Trudy: What's the matter.

Pete: There's two Heads of Accounts. Kenny Cosgrove and I are sharing it.

Trudy: Oh, I am so sorry.

Pete: I was sitting there and they just read off a list of names, a list of companies. [Shrugs]. That's my life. 

Indeed.

Oh how I have been in this meeting, and more than once. Now I am not the head of Account Services, but I have been asked to sit down and been told "You are no longer working with Company A, you are now working with Companies X, Y and Z." Ummm....yes sir.

Pete sometimes gets a bad rap. I mean, he drinks Glenlivet (one of the only Mad Men to opt for a single malt) so how bad can he be? He fights for the work (most of the time) and has the Creative team's back (most of the time). Sure he is a creep, and we are not meant to root for him, but once again I can relate to him.

In this biz, we are not in control of our own fate.  

Updated: See below for take 2.