Why Don Draper IS Lounge

[RichardH]

Exaggeration?

I knew some of the guys who worked in newspapers and in media companies in London in the mid-late 60s.

They all had bars in their offices and smoked like chimneys: 80-100 a cigarettes a day.

They'd start drinking vodka or cognac as soon as they arrived at work and get through at a bottle a day at least.
They'd work until lunch, go to the pub, drink more, then sleep in their offices until around 9pm, then they would start work again and go through until 3 or 4 in the morning. Then they'd go into Soho to a club for a drink before they went home (or at least went somewhere).

I really don't see much exaggeration in Mad Men. Compared with some of the stories I've heard, I thought it was actually quite tame.

Some of this London media culture was captured in Keith Waterhouse's play "Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell" "The play's title refers to the magazine's habit of printing a one-line apology on a blank page when he was too drunk or hung-over to produce the required copy"


Come to think of it, I also knew many people who worked in media in the 80s and 90s (indeed, I worked in it myself). Only the drug changed. So much cocaine was being taken it's hard to fathom how anything got done. I knew one company that used to DHL/courier pounds of the stuff across town to its other branch in 35mm film cans. I remember speaking to one producer who had no idea that it was Thursday because he had been awake since Monday.

The biggest exaggeration in Mad Men is that there's no way the guys who live these kinds of lives look like Roger Sterling and Don Draper. All the guys I knew ended up looking like Charles Bukowski!

I'd take those stories with a huge grain of salt. You know how people like to spice things up a little for the sake of a good story. How many times haven't we heard; Guy #1 "Man, yesterdays party was aaawesome!" Gut #2 "Wait until you hear MY story, it was even more crazy and decadent than anybody could imagine!" and so forth.

 

[Aerojoe]

They couldn't drink on the job anymore, they couldn't use slurs (sexual or racial), they couldn't tell dirty jokes, you couldn't call the secretary the girl anymore or take her out to lunch, and you couldn't comment on a woman's sexual features. Some of the comments were basically "those women came here and ruined all our fun." Not to add that many of the men felt they were actively discriminated against (women were chosen over men) which didn't help their attitudes.

Did this happen during the 1960s in a company or during the middle ages inside a viking tavern? :eeek:

My mom is a mechanic at the plant where we work and has been doing that job for 15 years about. It's always been a struggle for her making it in a man's world. She can do the job just as good, if not better than some of the fellas at work, and deserves every bit of respect and pay she gets. I do think it's unfortunate that she had to work twice as hard to get there.

For a company, the only important fact regarding a particular worker, is if he or she is being profitable or not. However there are some bosses around that are specially retarded.

And many of them need to come out of the closet once for good.

 

[noonblueapples]

When I first saw this tv show, I thought scriptwriters were using all that drinking and smoking as a contrast against what today is considered morally correct.

I think they were provoking on purpose and this provocation is part of the show success. Today, a lot of people are tired of having to be morally correct ad nauseam all the time and in every situation.

I find all the drinking and smoking to be important to the plot. Most of the charagters are shown clinging to a superficial surface life and having no true integrity, they overindulge in whats around them in an attempt at happiness. Being ad men they then attempt to sell this concept to the public in one form or another.