10010: Minority-Free Mad Men.

Secretary Dawn Chambers was presented via a panning headshot, quick comment and voice through the intercom announcing a caller to Don Draper. Other than that, the latest episode of AMC series Mad Men featured zero minorities.

To compensate for the dearth of diversity, feel free to catch a recent interview with actress Teyonah Parris.

9988: Mad Men Is A Riot.

AMC series Mad Men hinted at the New York Race Riots in the latest episode.

Joan Harris’ husband Greg returned from military service. While having a conversation with Joan’s mother about “the riots,” Greg remarked, “Plenty of Negroes in Saigon—and they’re plenty brave.” Yep, the program continues to display reverence to Blacks.

Peggy Olson caught Dawn sleeping in Don’s office, and learned the secretary was avoiding the riots. Peggy invited Dawn to stay at her apartment, where the two bonded. Peggy tried to connect by saying she was once “the only one” at the agency too—meaning the sole female copywriter. Gee, that’s really relatable. However, Peggy hesitated when leaving her purse with Dawn in the living room. Nice.

9961: Teyonah Parris In Springtime.

Meet Don Draper’s new secretary here.

9954: Mad Men Agency Hires Minorities.

Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce did in two weeks what most advertising agencies have failed to do for decades—the fictional shop has embraced diversity. Granted, the place only hired a new Black secretary. “She was the most qualified,” explained Don Draper. Um, since when have secretaries at SCDP ever displayed qualifications beyond good looks and a willingness to have sex with Roger Sterling? Plus, at the insistence of Sterling, Peggy Olson hired a Jewish copywriter, another first for the agency, which should provide Mad Men series creator Matthew Weiner more opportunities to present cultural stereotypes. What’s next? A Chief Diversity Officer?

For a semi-related perspective on the secretary scenario, check out this essay at The Daily Beast.

9938: C’MON WHITE MAN! Episode 19.

(MultiCultClassics credits ESPN’s C’MON MAN! for sparking this semi-regular blog series.)

Oops. MultiCultClassics was wrong to wonder why AMC series Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner tagged Y&R as racist. Turns out Weiner was historically accurate after all. Should have known better than to defend a White advertising agency. Consider the following an attempt to make amends.

Referring to the 1966 incident, Y&R Global CEO David Sable remarked, “Part of that story is sad but true—a few idiots dropped water balloons on protesters some 50 years ago. What I don’t know was whether or not they were fired. I certainly hope they were. Needless to say, their behavior was completely repulsive and not in line with the values of our company.”

Sable doesn’t know whether or not the culprits were fired? Please. If they had been axed, it would have been news—and the agency records would have noted the action. It’s a safe bet the morons were promoted.

As for the behavior being “completely repulsive and not in line with the values of our company,” consider the fact that advertising icon and Y&R alum Roy Eaton once declared, “I was the ‘Jackie Robinson’ of general market creatives. Starting at Y&R in 1955. I am appalled at the lack of progress that has been made till now. I have a presentation that I gave at DraftFCB and will be giving at my alma mater Y&R that addresses the action that must be taken on both sides of this equation. To continue the lie that ‘there just isn’t enough Black talent out there’ is a cover-up for an American malady that must be addressed.”

Remember too that Y&R essentially blackballed Harry Webber for having the audacity to expose Madison Avenue’s dirty little secret in 1969.

Most outrageous is Sable’s eagerness to brag about his agency’s creation of the classic UNCF campaign, “A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste.”

Sorry, Mr. Sable, but the water balloon scenario is hardly a first offense for Y&R. Your agency has essentially been turning the fire hoses on Blacks forever.

C’MON WHITE MAN!

9937: Madison Avenue Bombers.

From The New York Times…

On ‘Mad Men,’ an Opening Scene Straight From Page 1

By Michael Wilson

The opening scenes of the Season 5 premiere of “Mad Men,” set in 1966, depicted a sort of knucklehead-racism at work, when young men from the advertising agency Young & Rubicam dropped bags filled with water on protesters picketing on the Madison Avenue sidewalk below. Wet and angry, several protesters came upstairs to demand to know who at the firm had dropped the water bombs.

One protester said in disgust, “And they call us savages.”

Some critics found the scene, broadcast on Sunday, a bit too on-the-nose. “It’s a terrible line that should have been red-penciled,” wrote Matt Zoller Seitz for New York magazine. Mike Hale of The New York Times called it “unfortunately ham-handed.”

But no writer is to blame.

Everything in the scene really happened, written almost verbatim from an article on Page 1 of The Times on May 28, 1966.

“Poverty Pickets Get Paper-Bag Dousing on Madison Avenue,” the headline read. The article described more than 300 people picketing the Office of Economic Opportunity, between East 40th and 41st Streets, the day before, chanting, “O-E-O, we’ve got the poverty, where’s the dough?” Executives upstairs at Young & Rubicam, half a block from the building, shouted at the protesters, and hung up signs saying “If you want money, get yourself a job.”

And then, the article said: “A container of water was pitched out of one of the windows of the building, splashing two spectators. Later, two demonstrators were hit by water-filled paper bags thrown from the building.”

A 9-year-old boy was struck. Several women in the protest, including the boy’s mother, hurried up to the advertising agency’s sixth-floor offices and confronted a secretary about the water throwing.

“This is the executive floor,” the secretary said. “That’s utterly ridiculous.”

“Don’t you call us ridiculous,” a protester shouted. “Is this what Madison Avenue represents?”

“And they call us savages,” a protester named Vivian Harris said.

Somewhere in the room was John Kifner, a cub reporter for The Times who had been hired as a copyboy three years earlier.

“Kif,” as he is still known in the newsroom, would go on to cover more or less every armed conflict on planet Earth in the decades that followed, but on this day in 1966, he was on Madison Avenue.

Forty-five years later, Allison Mann, head of research for the writers of “Mad Men,” came across Kif’s clip while scanning front pages from that time, and gave it to Matthew Weiner, the show’s creator.

“I was blown away,” Mr. Weiner said in a telephone interview on Tuesday. “I just loved the level of outrage from the participants in the protest. It was so eloquently said, and it struck to the heart of the conflict. They were being lampooned. This was a very serious issue for them and a joke to everyone else.”

He quickly decided to keep Mr. Kifner’s dialogue. “His story was such that I thought it inviolable,” Mr. Weiner said. “The way that quote-unquote ‘average person’ got to the heart of it was way better than any writer could have made up. If I had concocted the story, I would have never written that. It was a great capturing of the lack of respect, which is to me what a lot of the show is about.”

He toyed with the idea of having characters from his fictional firm of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce dropping the water, but chose to keep the action at Young & Rubicam. “It was not a slight at Y&R at all,” he said. “It’s something I thought our agency would be amused by.”

David Sable, the present-day chief executive of Y&R, was not amused.

“Part of that story is sad but true — a few idiots dropped water balloons on protesters some 50 years ago,” he said in a statement on Tuesday. “What I don’t know was whether or not they were fired. I certainly hope they were. Needless to say, their behavior was completely repulsive and not in line with the values of our company.”

The critics, informed that the scene that seemed to them to be wooden was in fact born of flesh and blood, stood their ground.

Mr. Hale: “There is no connection between the fact that it actually happened and the scene was taken from a New York Times article and whether the scene was any good or not.”

Of the “savages” quote, he said, “When she said that, it just rings so false.”

Mr. Seitz: “It’s good to know that all that actually happened, but it’s still a terrible line in context of the scene, because it’s an editorial summing-up that tells us all how to feel.”

Mr. Kifner, 70, has no recollection of that day.

“There was a lot of poverty and racial stuff,” he said. “I had the poverty beat. It’s so long ago, and so many stories. I can’t remember.”

Mr. Kifner does not watch “Mad Men” — “My sister watches it,” he said – but when told he basically wrote a key scene for the hit show, he said: “No kidding! That’s great.”

There is a reporter in the background of the “Mad Men” scene, scribbling notes, a fictional Kif. “He knew that he had stumbled into a way better story than what he had shown up for,” Mr. Weiner said. “He is the poster for why somebody would want to be a journalist when they grow up. The whole thing smacks of adventure and intellect.”

9925: Mad Men Drops Season 5.

The premier episode of the 5th season of AMC series Mad Men was bookended by racial references. Staffers at Young & Rubicam were displayed dropping water bombs from their high-rise offices onto Black protestors below. The activists stormed the agency lobby to complain, and when the bombers were caught red-handed, one Black woman sniffed, “And they call us savages.” A drenched Black child allowed creator Matthew Weiner another chance to cast minorities as heroic victims.

At Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, Roger Sterling joked about the incident and wondered if his agency shouldn’t advertise itself as an equal opportunity employer. Don Draper laughed along with Sterling. The Draper character has always been schizophrenic with his insensitivity. One moment, the man employs and shows respect to former housekeeper Carla. Next, he’s giggling over racist goofballs.

At a later event where executives continued discussing the Y&R scenario, Pete Campbell remarked, “Couldn’t have happened to a better bunch of bigots.”

It seemed odd that the program would tweak Y&R in such a way, as the iconic agency did hire Roy Eaton in 1955, while Mad Men appears to be depicting the early-to-mid 1960s. Not saying the place was or is a bastion of multicultural harmony, but surely the authenticity-obsessed Weiner could have chosen a better target.

A surprise birthday bash for Draper presented an effeminate Black attendee, giving partygoers opportunities to insult homosexuals. Weiner has been consistently comfortable exploring blatant bias aimed at gays. The party also featured a live band with a Black saxophonist, perpetuating a stereotype that still plays in advertisements to this very day.

Lane Pryce found a wallet in a taxicab and conversed with the Black driver, permitting more reverent depictions of Blacks.

Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce ultimately ran a prank want ad, touting itself as an equal opportunity employer. The episode closed showing the agency lobby filled with Black applicants, leading to an impromptu meeting where the dumbfounded executives decided they must at least pretend to offer someone a job. Plus, Y&R delivered a counter-prank, sending an African sculpture with a fake resume attached. Lane Pryce announced the shop would interview for secretary positions, dismissing the male candidates and collecting resumes from the women.

All in all, Mad Men exhibited two hours of cultural cluelessness—from the fictional characters as well as the series’ writing crew.

9918: Mad Women Mirrors Mad Men.

In 1986, ad veteran Jane Maas published her autobiography titled, “Adventures of an Advertising Woman.” Roughly 25 years later, “Mad Women: The Other Side of Life on Madison Avenue in the ‘60s and Beyond” seemingly reworks and repackages Maas’ tale to capitalize on the popularity of AMC series Mad Men.

For blog visitors seeking a legitimate review of the book, Businessweek delivered an honest and accurate critique, and Kirkus Reviews chipped in a polite summation too—rightly opining that “Maas’ memoir will likely not have the impact of her classic 1977 tome How to Advertise (co-written with Kenneth Roman).”

MultiCultClassics will forgo the comparisons and contrasts to the author’s other works, preferring to examine the cultural similarities between the imagery presented in Mad Women and the altered realities depicted in Mad Men.

For starters, Maas attempted to address the inequities, discrimination and harassment present on Madison Avenue, although almost entirely from a gender perspective exclusive to Whites. The book’s index tells the story, where words such as “stereotypes” and “bias” tie to the challenges Caucasian adwomen faced. However, Maas doesn’t really take a stand or condemn anyone, opting for the safer “it was what it was” position. Contemporary activists for gender equality in our industry won’t find an ally in Mad Women.

Regarding race and ethnicity, Maas’ book follows the AMC series by virtually ignoring people of color. It’s interesting to note that while Don and Betty Draper employed housekeeper and nanny Carla (a Black woman), the Maas family included lifelong housekeeper and nanny Mabel (aka Carmen Dyce, a native Jamaican living in Brooklyn, New York). The loyal Mabel receives decent coverage in the book, albeit similar to the role Carla played in Mad Men.

The word “diversity” appears in the book’s index, yet it just leads to a couple of pages discussing WASPs, Jews and gays. Ogilvy & Mather President Jim Heekin once asked Maas, “Do we have too many homosexuals at this agency?” Maas admitted to being dumbfounded and unable to answer the question. Apparently, nobody ever queried if there were too many minorities in the office.

Oddly enough, the only minority reference pertaining to the advertising business comes one page ahead of the pages designated for “diversity” by the book’s index. Here’s the total paragraph:

Mad Men has it right about the lack of diversity at agencies in the 1960s. The only black faces you see on the show are Hollis, the elevator operator, and Carla, the Drapers’ maid. Ogilvy & Mather hired its first African-American copywriter in 1968, and assigned her to my group. The day before Betty arrived, the copy chief of the agency took me aside and told me quite seriously that if I became aware of any “anti-Negro comments or gestures,” I had full power to fire the perpetrator on the spot. Nobody said a word. Betty came quietly, stayed with us for about a year, wrote some effective ads, and moved on to a better job at another agency. She helped us take a big step forward.

Unlike every other individual in the book, Betty is not identified by her last name. It’s difficult to determine who this female Jackie Robinson might be, and MultiCultClassics will happily accept assistance from any knowledgeable visitor to properly recognize the woman. Can’t help but wonder if the lack of last name was an unintended slight or an inability to completely recall the person who “helped us take a big step forward.”

Despite its cheery reminiscing over the advertising industry, Mad Women mirrors Mad Men by reflecting all the cultural cluelessness still present on Madison Avenue today. We haven’t come a long way, baby.

9912: Cancel Hamm Vs. Kardashian Show.

Don’t quite understand the Jon Hamm vs. Kim Kardashian scenario. In some ways, Hamm is starting to resemble the privileged, exclusivity-fueled egotists portrayed on Mad Men—and appearing live on Madison Avenue. Besides, the majority of the AMC series’ actors are just a season away from becoming contestants on Dancing with the Stars.

9904: Newsweek Salutes Mad Men & White Men.

Newsweek published a special edition commemorating AMC series Mad Men, complete with retro ads in the content of the magazine. Of course, the special ads feature zero non-Whites—unless you count Smokey the Bear and the GEICO Gecko.

9896: Mad Men Mumblings.

Didn’t have time during the week to examine the two-part perspective published at Slate titled, “Mad Men and Black America”—but better late than never. Writer Tanner Colby painfully painstakingly dissects the AMC series, attempting to argue that creator Matthew Weiner is being deliberate in the clumsy handling of non-White characters on the show. Can’t help but think Colby isn’t very familiar with the program, Madison Avenue or the concept of cultural cluelessness.

The author did manage to reference Latoya Peterson’s 2009 DoubleX story on Mad Men, yet it’s not clear if he understood that piece either. Peterson griped that if Mad Men continued to ignore race, “it is truly written by cowards.” Colby countered by typing, “It’s a show about advertising. And it is advertising, not Mad Men, that is written by cowards.” Not completely sure what Colby meant, but it sure sounds provocative. Too bad his lengthy musings fail to reach the intellectual level of Peterson’s viewpoint.

MultiCultClassics wholeheartedly disagrees with Colby’s contention that Weiner does indeed comprehend the complexities of race and ethnicity on Madison Avenue and beyond. The belief here has always been that Weiner is a wienie when integrating Black culture and characters. For groups that he shares some affinity—Jews and gays, for example—Weiner doesn’t hesitate to expose the pretty and ugly sides. With Blacks, however, the series creator puts on the kid gloves, reverently presenting colored people as humble, heroic and stoic. Even Lane Pryce’s girlfriend who served drinks at the Playboy Club was more respectable than most of the ladies at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce. The accuracy-obsessed Weiner has used original ad men as consultants to verify the details are correct. For Black culture, Weiner probably just relies on Google searches.

Colby concluded the first part of his exposition by opining:

Mad Me isn’t cowardly for avoiding race. Quite the opposite. It’s brave for being honest about Madison Avenue’s cowardice. While Don Draper and Sterling Cooper may seem woefully behind the times, that just means Matthew Wiener is right on schedule, historically speaking. And if Mad Men’s schedule stays on the course it’s been following, it’s a safe bet that the season now beginning will finally bring us to the point when black consumers stand up and refuse to sit at the back of the advertising bus.

Um, Black consumers and Black ad agencies continue to sit at the back of the advertising bus. And many have been left at the bus stop. Sorry, but seeing prominent and fully-developed Black characters on Mad Men is about as likely as Don Draper taking the bus to the office.

Colby ended his puffery by proclaiming:

Black Mad Men viewers have every right to want a TV show that depicts the experiences of blacks in advertising—that show takes place in the 1970s.

First of all, who said anyone was hoping to see characters depicting the experiences of Blacks in advertising? It’s not as if everyone on the program is tied to Madison Avenue. The majority of minorities might be content to see Carla return in a decent role. However, if viewers did wish to witness Blacks in the ad game, it wouldn’t require a time warp to the 1970s. Vince Cullers launched his shop in 1956. Junius Edwards toiled in the business during the 1960s. If Mad Men fans can accept Don Draper changing identities with a dead soldier, is it really too fantastic to let a Black person type a few taglines? Although for authenticity, Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce could simply hire a new mailroom attendant.

9857: Mad Woman Cashing In On Mad Men.

From Advertising Age…

True Tales and Cocktails with the Real Mad Men and Women of Madison Avenue

Hobnobbing with Mary Wells Lawrence, Jane Maas and More

By: Rupal Parekh

There’s a wealth of buzz about the next season of Mad Men, the AMC soap opera about advertising that returns later this month. But the premiere will likely pale to what I got to do last night—hang out with the real thing: legendary advertising folks from that era.

Ad Age Executive Editor Judann Pollack and I met them at the home of former Ogilvy Chairman-CEO Ken Roman, who’s also the author of David Ogilvy biography “The King of Madison Avenue.” The occasion? A fete in honor Jane Maas, the author of the new book “Mad Women,” which tells the story of life on Madison Avenue in the 1960’s from the female perspective.

Mr. Roman and his wife Ellen reside in the penthouse of a building on Manhattan’s Upper East Side that offers a panoramic view of the East River and New York’s Gracie Mansion (historically the official residence of the Mayor, but New York’s current Mayor and billionaire Michael Bloomberg only uses it for meetings). It’s not just a stunning place; it’s also a building that boasts a bit of ad history, spanning three different holding companies.

Several years ago, a number of rival ad execs all inhabited the place at the same time. Mr. Roman told a story about getting into the elevator one morning a number of years ago in a suit and encountering former BBDO CEO Allen Rosenshine and ex-Interpublic Group Chairman-CEO Phil Geier, who were similarly attired. The lift then stopped on another floor and in walked Charlie Moss, former creative director at Wells Rich Greene, clad in a velour track suit. According to Mr. Roman, Mr. Moss cracked that he must have missed the meeting. Mr. Moss, who was present and didn’t dispute that account, was nonetheless a bit more formally attired last night.

It was an ad party after all ... so a bartender passed around drinks and canapes to the crowd that included the unrelentingly stylish Mary Wells Lawrence, clad in red pants and red pumps, toting a snakeskin purse. (No one, however, was wearing a hat, which Ms. Maas said would have been required of female ad executives back in the 60s, indoors and out).

Jerry Della Femina was there too with his wife, Judy Licht, and we chatted about the sagging newspaper business and his selling off his restaurant in East Hampton. He’s got no plans to open any others, he said, preferring to stick to his New York agency and writing his column, Jerry’s Ink, in the small Hampton’s paper he owns.

There was Ogilvy Chairman Shelly Lazarus and one of my personal favorites, former McCann creative Laurel Cutler. I met her for the first time through Facebook, and during the course of the party she showed us the stylus she uses for her iPad—so as to not break her freshly polished nails.

About an hour into the event, the tiny but amazingly energetic Ms. Maas, sporting a lavender jacket with a unicorn brooch, was introduced by Mr. Roman and invited to say a few words about the book. Ms. Maas, who is about to embark on a whirlwind 40-city book tour, explained that she was surprised at the candidness of ad women in speaking to her for “Mad Women.” That quickly led to a few highlights from the chapter entitled “Sex in the Office,” and one of her favorite anecdotes: copywriter Linda Bird Francke saying, “I lost my virginity to the account executive on Jell-O.”

Ms. Maas also told some fun stories about office love affairs and the like (sorry, they were off the record). Her proudest moment recently was being interviewed on NPR for her book. She said that when she was walking out someone queried the receptionist about who was on air-that morning. The receptionist replied: “I dunno ... some old lady talking about sex.”

9851: Mad At Mad Men.

Advertising Age reported New Yorkers are upset by outdoor billboards promoting the upcoming season of Mad Men (depicted above), claiming the falling Don Draper graphic evokes images of 9/11. Interestingly enough, no one has ever expressed concern that the animated figure—which has illustrated the show’s opening title sequence since the beginning—actually evokes images of all the real adpeople who have jumped from high-rise buildings.

Controversy Brews Over Ads Promoting New Season of AMC’s ‘Mad Men’

Family Members of 9/11 Victims Complain Falling-Man Images Recall Those of Tragedy

By Rupal Parekh

Just weeks before the much-awaited return of AMC’s “Mad Men,” a promotional campaign for the fifth season of the hit show about 1960’s Madison Avenue is sparking controversy as some folks say it evokes images from the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

In question is a minimalist image featured on billboards, on public telephone booths and in subway stations. It depicts a man wearing a suit stenciled in black, as he falls through the sky against a stark white background. Several family members of 9/11 victims told the New York Times that for them, the image conjures the memory of people forced to jump out of the crumbling, blazing Twin Towers more than 10 years ago.

The sudden outrage suggests that many Americans aren’t familiar with the show, since this image of the falling man has been utilized in the show’s opening credits and has been emblematic of the series—and its lead character, Don Draper, played by Jon Hamm—from the beginning.

Wikipedia notes that the title sequences pay homage to graphic designer Saul Bass’s skyscraper-filled opening titles for Alfred Hitchcock’s “North by Northwest” and the falling-man movie poster for “Vertigo.” The show’s creator, Matthew Weiner, has listed Hitchcock as a major influence on the visual style of the series, says the Wikipedia page.

That the posters are now causing a stir is likely due to heightened outdoor and print advertising around the show’s fifth season, as well as a recent article in Esquire that made the comparison to 9/11.

AMC denies any link between its advertising and 9/11. In a statement, the network told the New York Times: “The image of Don Draper tumbling through space has been used since the show began in 2007 to represent a man whose life is in turmoil. The image used in the campaign is intended to serve as a metaphor for what is happening in Don Draper’s fictional life and in no way references actual events.”

9707: Carla Unplugged.

The only prominent Black character on AMC series Mad Men—Carla the housekeeper—was portrayed by Deborah Lacey. Here’s a pictorial peek at the actress.