AMC’s program Mad Men is a critically acclaimed and award winning television show documenting the life and times of the employees of a fictional advertising agency (Sterling-Cooper) in the 1960’s. The term “Mad Men” is a portmanteau on the the phrase “ad men” and Madison Avenue, the street in New York City where many of the agencies were located. The show is celebrated not only for its deep and entrancing plot and characters but for its accurate portrayal of the period.
The most interesting thing about the show is looking at ads from “the golden age of advertising” and how it relates the sentiments held by the characters on the show. It is evident from the very first episode how very different the 1960s were from the modern day. Bosses calling their secretaries “sweetheart” and the prominent sexism and racism throughout the show are examples of this. There is one particular advertisment that is features a a stewardess in a skirt that is “just half an inch too short” in order to inject subtle sexuality into an ad for an airline, a service used predominantly by men in the 1960s.
