The Economics of 'Mad Men'
For The Sopranos fans out there who are going through high-intensity withdrawal, you might want to watch the new series Mad Men on the AMC Channel. It's from The Sopranos executive producer, Matthew Weiner, and is a fairly dark drama set in 1960. As the intro to the show explains it:
"Mad Men"
A term coined in the late 1950's to describe
the advertising executives of Madison Avenue.They coined it.
Just from that, you know there's an underlying arrogance to the show and its leading characters. And that's definitely the case, but I think the show actually revolves around a line from the pilot episode that any game theorist can appreciate. One of the "mad men", Salvatore, said, "We’re supposed to believe that people are living one way, and secretly thinking the exact opposite? That’s ridiculous."
And as the main character, Don Draper, puts it, "Advertising is based on one thing - happiness". But the show isn't about happiness at all. These guys are married, but misogynistic. Back then, divorce was unacceptable, even though adultery was common place. People smoke and drank at work (even doctors). They were reckless, but in control. And the show lays all of that on real thick.
The writing so far is brilliant. In the third episode, the "mad men" are upset that a competing ad agency representing Volkswagen had published a clever new print ad. Defensively, one of them used humor to show he wasn't impressed with the Beetle: "The last time I saw one of those I was throwing a grenade in it."
Another great line was when a veteran secretary was showing off a typewriter (an artifact to you and me) to a new employee. "Now try not to be overwhelmed by all this technology. It looks complicated, but the men who designed it made it simple enough for a woman to use."
It's clear that the show's crew went to painstaking lengths to make sure the characters, the offices, the cars, and the rest of the set looked genuinely from the time period. In one "behind the scenes" interview, Weiner said he made sure the fruit set on the tables were smaller in size as opposed to the larger hydroponically-grown fruit of today.
The country has grown both wealthier and wiser over the intervening years, but this show is worth examining if you want to know what life was like back then.
Here's the trailer, along with other videos. AMC has only aired 3 episodes, so you won't miss much if you start now. Better yet, if you have OnDemand, I think you can catch up from the beginning.
