I don’t watch Mad Men, but I hear it is the best show currently on TV from a lot of people I respect.
One of the most touted aspects of the show is that its period-piece realism lets viewers time travel to a bygone era of American business. A time when Madison Avenue ruled the advertising world and set the tone for consumer products. A time when the political correctness and general kid-gloves corporate culture of today didn’t exist. A time when white men strong-armed their way through the business world by any means necessary, giving little care to the rules, regulations and corporate guidelines they were technically supposed to obey — and running into few obstacles preventing them from behaving that way.
While those times and the people that lived in them are romanticized very well by Mad Men‘s creators, it’s probably a way of life best left in the past. Sure, the changes that have occurred since then have led to out-of-control litigation, and we now live in an over-sensitive culture where it can be nearly impossible to make tough decisions without upsetting some group of critics.
And, sure, legal risks, safety violations, environmental issues and dozens of other worries represent a whole host of risks that businesses rarely had to plan for in the past.
But — mostly — change has been progress.
New rules have helped move (at least a few) women to the top of the corporate ladder.
They have helped curtail discrimination. And they have ensured that business leaders (usually … OK, at least sometimes) follow the law of the land. Generally, the business world is a fairer and more equitable environment in which more accountability, respect and professionalism is demanded from all parties.
Plus, the risk management of today is much better — meaning that all you risk managers have jobs and influence that never would have existed in the days of Don Draper, the main character of Mad Men (played by Jon Hamm).
But what it Don Draper existed today?
Well, wouldn’t you know it, the blog Put This On has shed some light on that very question — by creating an image showing what Draper would look like if his image was sketched by the Wall Street Journal. And, rest assured, if this ad-selling, chain-smoking, womanizing, former used-car selling exec was around today, there would probably be a reason for him to pop up on the Journal‘s front page.
Quite often.
