Mad Men

In the first episode of Mad Men, the deliciously complicated American drama set in a fictitious advertising agency in the 1960s, “new girl” Peggy Olson goes to a doctor to get a prescription for the contraceptive pill.

Fresh out of secretarial college, wide-eyed and eager to fit into her new and sophisticated surroundings, Peggy is encouraged by her colleague Joan to see Dr Emerson, a swaggering and leery middle-aged, male doctor in standard issue white coat and stethoscope.

Poised at the end of the examination table, cigarette in hand, Emerson is suggestive and familiar; a pompous fountain of abrasive, misogynistic and downright creepy “advice” that goes something like this: “There’s nothing wrong with being practical about the possibility of sexual activity… at the same time, we have to make sure that it’s not going to turn you into a strumpet. But the fact is, even in our modern times easy women don’t find themselves husbands.”

Continue reading "Hey Scipione, don’t lecture us on sex and booze" »

As Season 5 of Mad Men approaches with the promise of more excoriating social commentary, it’s fitting to reflect on the media, gender roles and misogyny. Especially when we have Sky Sports (UK) commentators making sexist gaffes about female referees. But good thing those mad men, Andy Gray and Richard Keys did, or else we wouldn’t know we were still living in the decade of Don Drapers.

If you’re unfamiliar, Don Draper (Jon Hamm) is the central character of Mad Men – a series about Madison Avenue’s elite 1960s admen. Draper, creative director of fictional Ad agency Sterling Cooper, is a figure of philandering, pinstriped machismo. In short, he is at the heart of the Mad Men phenomenon.

The title of a recent op-ed by magazine jezebel.com said it all: ‘The Don Draper Effect: Why Do Feminists Still Love Assholes?’ The operative word, some might argue, is still.

Continue reading "Misogyny didn’t end with the era of Mad Men" »

The Social Network opens in Australia later this week and whether you couldn’t care less about Facebook or you’re guilty of updating your status every time your toddler passes wind, there’s a lot to think about in this film about the world’s youngest billionaire.

The first question viewers will discuss after seeing the story of the man who was just 19 when he created the world-wide internet phenomenon of Facebook will be: is Mark Zuckerberg an asshole?

And judging by the flurry of examination of the issue overseas - the second question will be: is this movie misogynistic/about misogyny?

Continue reading "The Mad Men of social networking" »

It’s a show that deals with the most ideologically contested decade in living memory, but neither the Left nor Right have stepped up to the plate and dragged Mad Men into the culture wars.
 

The third season of Mad Men, the cult hit TV show set (thus far) in a Kennedy-era ad agency, is about to be broadcast in Australia by cable channel Movie Extra. The show is now closing in on 1964 ­- the year when the Sixties really began to swing.

By the season’s finale JFK will be history and the Beatles three months away from setting off the baby boomer youthquake that, within four years, will have torn the US and, to a greater or lesser extent, the rest of the Western world in two, setting in motion a host of rancorous political conflicts that are still being played out five decades later.

Continue reading "Where are all the angry white mad men?" »

Well it’s official. People hate marketers, particularly those in advertising. Research by Roy Morgan has ranked advertising as the third most-hated industry across all professions. We’re more hated than union leaders and real estate agents, but just managed to scrape in front of journalists and car salesmen.

All I can say is thank god I don’t work with any car clients because with this article and an interest in marketing I might take the trifecta and actually be the most hated person in the world.

So why do people hate the profession in which I’m going to invest my entire career? I’ll probably agree with what you’ve got to say for the most part, but I should probably at least attempt to convince you otherwise.

Continue reading "I know you hate marketers but face it, you need them" »