Mad Man is coming to an end this weekend. We sat down with a few of Atlanta's very own ad agency creative directors to discuss the show, advertising as an art form and what to make of this crazy world.
Advertising is a layered beast. It is simple, in that its objectives are known. "Buy this," is not the most nuanced concept in the human experience. But people don't respond to what, they respond to why. Enter the psychology of creativity, the world glamorized by Mad Men and actualized by Noel Cottrell, Rob Broadfoot, and Moritz Bosselmann – the creative leads at three prominent Atlanta ad agencies.
"There is something very magical about telling a story that involves a bank, or a casual dining restaurant, or fire-resistant clothing, or a bottle of soda that makes people feel something," said Cottrell, Chief Creative Officer for Fitzgerald & Co.
He's not joking. This town was practically built on soda ads making people feel something.
Sunday, AMC will air the finale of the show that put the channel on the map. As the series drives towards its ultimate destination, the internet is buzzing with theories on its conclusion. The straight-no-chaser, pre-feminist Madison Avenue Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce inhabited in the show's 1960's backdrop may be a thing a of the past, but some things never change.
"People maintain the perception that it's very glamorous and all fun, all the time," says Broadfoot, Co-Creative Director at Atlanta's MOCK, the agency. "The industry still moves quickly and you still have to respond accordingly. What wouldn't happen is all the smoking. Cigarettes are way too expensive."
"Oh, the smoking and sex in the office thing has now moved to the stairwell," adds Cottrell jokingly.
Wherever people are copulating and smoking, the adverting industry in Atlanta – and in most major cities around the world – remain a place where brilliantly creative people treat brands like they are kings, and offices as the playgrounds in which they make fun ideas.
"Advertising is full of talented and interesting people. And when they all work together, things can get quite exciting," said Bosselmann, Creative Director at Razorfish.
"Most jobs suck," adds Cottrell. "Advertising is fun. In advertising you get to wear Chuck Taylor's to work (not in the Mad Men era), you get to propose amazing ideas to your clients, you get to create the things that are in your mind, [and] do shoots in faraway places."
But for all the glamour of Mad Men, what makes it - and perhaps advertising, itself - most relevant is that beyond the sales tactics and destination shoots lie real psychology. Real emotion. Real human experience to be honored, celebrated and commemorated in thirty second bursts.
Mad Men offers a nuanced storyline that dissects our most basic needs, our desires and our decisions as both a society of consumers and as individuals. "Happiness is a new car," Mad Men's Don Draper famously offered.
Reality is sometimes a bit more limited, but it doesn't change the passion of the industry.
"Conceiving and realizing a campaign or product can be creatively very satisfying, but it is heavily dependent on how many, or few, restrictions the client imposes on the creative process," said Bosselmann.
Bosselmann and the other creative leads in Atlanta are not so different to the television show.
Perhaps they brainstorm over tacos, beers and Macbooks instead of steak, scotch and cigarettes, but they understand principally what Draper and the show idealize, which is that our purchases reflect us. That we reflect our values with our homes, our clothes, our cars and our stuff. That all our hopes and dreams are wrapped in the same hard shell cellophane as our electronics.
They know from experience they can excite us, mind meld us, corral us, and even trick us into a purchase. Somewhere in Portland, Dan Wieden (of Wieden and Kennedy) is probably laughing manically as his creation – "Just Do It*" echoes through the halls of the ages, and soccer moms everywhere buy thirty dollar swoosh shirts. Advertising is a part of us.
*Wieden famously tells the story that the tagline for Nike was inspired by a Portland serial killer in front of the firing squad. His last words? "Just do it."
But for the all swaggy consumerism our Mad Men - real and fictional - have injected into society, those same people at least tacitly responsible for our culture of materialism in America, are some of the most also artistic, idealistic, intelligent subset of the business world. They get paid big dollars to be fun and funny. And they are appreciative of the nuances in advertising, psychology, television, art and life.
"I like to view advertising as commercially applied art, with a healthy dose of psychology, a hint of science and quite a bit of humor. At its best, advertising is both entertaining and educational," said Bosselmann.
Where we go from here as a society of consumers, and how television's Mad Men will end, remain to be seen.
But looking back on the 50 years since the modern Mad Men began selling, we already know what comes next - the new version same thing that's always been next! The 2016, limited release, all new, re-engineered and fully loaded whatever to fulfill your everything.
After all, the very best of times are just fifteen pounds away. And if we can get that new car, with the wind in our hair and our history in the rear view, then we'll be as sexy as the westbound travelers of 200 years of American history. We'll be cowboys and rebels. We'll buy that new shirt, trade in for the new phone, tweet that next meal and we will be complete. And somewhere in Midtown Atlanta, a few of the real life Mad Men – with their limitless creativity - will smile. Sales are up!
