Mad Men and me

The sixth and final season of “Mad Men” starts tomorrow (April 7) on AMC. It's my favorite show for many reasons because it depicts the golden age of advertising when legends like David Ogilvy, Bill Bernbach and Mary Welles were turning out iconic campaigns; when Bert Stern and Irving Penn were shooting memorable pictures including my favorite model, the beautiful Suzy Parker. And yes, I was part of it as an agency creative director like Don Draper. The only difference was that I was in London and he was in New York. Yes. I drank and smoked the way he did, I had my suits made on Savile Row, but I didn't have a couch in my office so I didn't have all of his adventures. I still get the Eric Idle “nudge-nudge wink-wink” but I was happily married to Peggy (Don & Peggy!!!) and living quietly in St. John's Wood with our two children. The show has elements of a soap opera that's definitely one for grownups but the advertising plots are 100% accurate. In fact I find myself yelling at the screen when I see the thing that got me fired and the double cross that led me to quit. Rolling Stone calls it, “The greatest TV drama of all time”. And I call it “my greatest job of all time”.