This one's for my late ad man dad man, Tom Murray. He knew Leo Burnett a little bit, and found the man unpleasant but the ideas right. On the 75th anniversary of Burnett's firm, I watch Burnett's retirement speech and have about the same reaction.
That’s my Mad Man ad man dad, man
Before he died, my ex-ad man dad saw a few episodes of the TV show Mad Men. He hated it—he said, because "you don't make great ads by drinking and having sex all day."
I think he hated it because it made him man jealous of his own working life, as an advertising creative director from the same era.
I'm going through some of Dad's old memos for a writing project, and came across this one, written to his counterpart on the Admiral appliance account, in 1967.
From: TOM MURRAY
Confidential
I was told the other day by Mr. Meyers that the old man at Admiral doesn't want sport coats, long hair, or colored shirts.
I will not, repeat will not tell my people what they can and can't wear, from sideburns to smoking jacket. [The agency chairman] made a tough speech about keeping out of our hair and letting us make advertising. Certainly if we aren't going to let them tell us what to write we're not going to let them tell us how to dress.
Just in case someone bugs you about this.
Tom
I always wished I had a boss like that, but I guess I'm lucky to have had a dad like that.
You can have the Mad Men, I’ll take the sad men
So many people are secretly happy in the fall that if you're feeling sad this time of year, you feel compelled to keep it to yourself.
I just learned from Maureen Dowd's column that Mad Men is one of President Obama's favorite TV shows. Now, I've got a complicated relationship with that show. My late dad was an ad man during that same era, he hated it on grounds that, "You don't make great ads by drinking and screwing all day!"
But it's so much fun watching them try!
I hate the show—of which I've seen the first two seasons—on different grounds: It's mostly meaningless and far more cynical than the atmosphere my dad (and copywriter mom, who Peggy Olson looks creepily like) described. More nihilistic than all but the very worst people I've ever worked with. And the sexism might have been bad in the 1960s, but still, I know when a point is being shoved down my throat. An amusing cartoon, but not very much like real life—then, now, or ever.
Ultimately, I agree with what I think was my dad's core point: That the people who are writing these episodes are not wise adults but clever children.
Me, I prefer sad men to Mad Men, and in the last few weeks I've watched:
• Tell Them Anything You Want, an interview documentary on Maurice Sendak, author of Where the Wild Things Are. I haven't seen the Wild Things movie yet, but I'll eat my hat if it's better than this conversation with the funny children's book writer with the sad childhood.
• Finishing Heaven, a documentary about a movie a guy filmed in 1970 but has been trying and failing to finish ever since. Sad—and thus, funny!
• And, for me, the saddest of them all, ESPN's documentary Muhammad and Larry, about the stupid, stupid lead-up to Muhammed Ali's disastrous last major fight.
I guess I'm glad President Obama's not watching all these sad films. A leader must light candles rather than curse darkness. But as for me, I sure find more to think about—and much more, as a matter of fact, to laugh about—in the sad stuff than in the mad stuff.
How about you?