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Advertising Age Puts Mad Men in the Headlines, So to Speak

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The fictional Sterling Cooper has been immortalized by the advertising industry's real-life bible, Advertising Age. The trade magazine published a bona fide section -- featuring mock interviews, reprints of actual articles from the era and some amusing "then and now" comparisons -- that reported on the agency's accounts and executives as if the firm really existed.

Don Draper gives an entertaining Q&A, calling Bert Cooper "a character" and "a legend" and calling the prospect of increased government regulation of the tobacco industry "a lot of hysteria." Some of his answers are nods to events in Season 1. When asked the secret of his success, Draper says he believes in "personal, one-on-one research."

"You'd be surprised what you can learn from tobacco sales from talking to a busboy," he adds. A question about Betty Draper's re-entry to the modeling world elicits this reply: "She's made it clear she has no intention of giving up her life as the world's happiest housewife."

You can check out a layout of actual ads from Sterling Cooper's purported clients, or read a gossipy item on why Vicks Chemical awarded the Clearasil account to the agency. Reprinted articles include "U.S. Companies Mark Record Year" which uses the alternate spelling "cigaret" that was popular then. "Then and now" features a look at "Ad Women: How Agency Life Really Was" and "Pete Campbell: The Life of an Account Exec" with cost comparisons for an Upper East Side apartment ($32,000 vs. $1.995 million) and a haircut ($5 vs. $50), among other things.

(NOTE: To see the complete 16 page special section that ran in the June 23, 2008 issue of Advertising Age, click here.)

Posted by Carolyn Koo
July 23, 2008 7:55am

Filed under: Press & Related Links

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