Running an ad agency, I’m painfully aware at how crazy this business can be. I take some comfort in the words of W.S. “Babs” Gilbert (of Gilbert & Sullivan fame) who opined, “There is humor in all things.” The agency biz is one part comedy, one part drama, a smattering of action, and an occasional dash of tragedy. To outsiders, peeking behind the curtain of an agency is akin to standing backstage and watching a magician work.
Hollywood has recently discovered that agency life has a great deal of potential for storylines, characters, and settings. Of course, since Hollywood believes that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery (or plagiarism), we now have not one, but two shows that are built around ad agency life.
Mad Men has just completed it’s second season. The AMC network show focuses on a fictional Madison Avenue ad agency in the early 1960s. While the show gives us a glimpse of agency life, it’s every bit as much (or more) about life in the 1960s. The two-martini lunch, the caste system between men and women, creative directors and art directors and copywritiers, and the decaying double-standards between male and female infidelities – all are displayed in stark contrast to the way we live and work today. This makes Mad Men like looking at artifacts in a time capsule, except the contents of each episode are generally a lot more interesting than any time capsule I’ve ever seen. Having lived through the 60s (as a kid), I remember a lot about it. What’s so cool about Mad Men is that they hit the tone and the vibe of the 60s dead on. From the fashions to the sexual politics to the office backstabbing and the nuclear family home life, Mad Men nails it. Which makes it valuable to see how much we’ve changed, how far we’ve come, and yet how much both work and life haven’t really changed at all.
Trust Me is a new show from TNT, the folks that brought you colorized versions of classic black & white films, just because they could. Unlike Mad Men, Trust Me is set in the present, and (at least in it’s series premiere) was all about the work, with a side order of fleshing out characters by way of their business relationships. While Mad Men uses the ad agency’s workings as a backdrop for character studies, Trust Me goes the opposite direction, focusing on how a dysfunctional agency team creates a campaign that a client will like. Because Trust Me is so new, it’s impossible to know how the show will develop, but it has a strong cast, good writers, and shows promise.
Do these two shows represent a trend? Probably. Any time a new genre shows promise, you can expect to see a bunch of me-too copycats. For a time, though, we’ve got two shows that are entertaining, engaging, and all about advertising. Enjoy ‘em while you can.
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