I rarely watch television! I actually dislike immensely and I feel a lot smarter because I don’t watch television. Some people would say that I’m happy in my ignorance but I beg to differ. I would rather read than watch. Plus, I don’t like commercials.

I do however watch Mad Men when I have the chance as I can download it late at night and skip the commercials. I really like the characters in this show. Hard drinking, chain smoking womanizers who appear to be lonely even standing in a crowd. These guys are cool and rarely laugh or even crack a smile. Cool guys don’t need to laugh or smile, they’re to busy brooding and being cool, even the logo is cool. Actually, the logo is brilliant. The lead Character’s name is Don Draper! Seriously, how cool is that! The women on the show are cool and whoever crafted all these characters did a hell of a job capturing the era of Madison Avenue Ad execs and the women who work with them: Mad Men! I even love the the name and how they came about it.

These are creative guys in the highly competitive market of advertising in New York and they drink and smoke all day long. Every office has a bar and they make use of it. Creative people struggling for accounts in an era where television, magazines and radio ruled the advertising world. We’re creative people here in the Creative Department of Arrowsmith Shoes and we struggle all the time. It’s the nature of the beast. However, we don’t drink Scotch all day and none of us smoke. And, nobody is sleeping with anyone who works here either, at least I don’t think anyway.

When watching the show you get the impression that the entire business is about reputation and appearances. They dress impeccably and when you see the actors when they put their feet up on the desk they all wear this type of shoe. Always in suits, they work their skills in the office or at the bar where picking up the tab goes with the territory. Getting the client drunk is a forgone conclusion and holding your liquor is a badge of honor.

Some of my favorite quotes from Mad Men:

“Fear stimulates my imagination”

“Get out of here and keep moving forward as this never happened. It will shock you how much this never happened.”

“Adding money and education doesn’t take the rude edge out of people.”

The women are secretaries working in a mans world and the actresses play the roles perfectly. They struggle for love, acceptance and happiness at a lower level where the glass ceilings of today didn’t exist.

If you like creative television then I highly recommend Mad Men.

Jim

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