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Despite his outbreaks of arrogance and meanness, Mad Men's Don Draper seems wimpy compared to George Lois, one of the advertising industry's giants of the 1960s.
"Mad Men misrepresents the advertising industry by ignoring the revolution that changed the world of communications forever," Lois wrote in a 2010 Playboy Magazine essay. "That mortal sin of omission makes Mad Men a lie."
Lois was known not only for his successful advertising agencies, but also for his ego, for his foul-mouth bluntness and for the bold, creative magazine covers he designed for Esquire, He was also known by Julian Koenig, a former partner, as someone who takes credit for other people's work.
While he is brutal in his criticism of Mad Men, the people associated with the show should not feel targeted. Lois has criticized hordes of people and institutions in the last half century. He's particularly tough on current magazine editors and their celebrity-filled covers. They're bland and lack ideas, he says with his usual broad brush.
Creative Revolution of the 1960s
In the course of the "creative revolution" of the 1960s, he said, power was " taken away from the account executives and the business men and transferred to the talented people who actually made the ads."
Lois' criticism of Mad Men centers on the small attention given to the historic cultural issues of the 1960s. While Draper's finest advertising moments in Mad Men so far have been his creativity for Lucky Strike and other consumer products, Lois took on issues like segregation, the Vietnam war and women's liberation, often shocking and outraging people with his Esquire covers.
Only the women at Sterling Cooper seemed deeply moved by the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
Peggy Olson Alone
In Mad Men, copywriter Peggy Olson (Elizabeth Moss) almost seems alone in her fight for women's equality and liberation. One of Draper's few admirable moments was promoting her from secretary to copywriter, Of course, in the real world, Erma Proetz and Helen Resor had already distinguished themselves enough as copywriters and executives to eventually be inducted into the Advertising Hall of Fame. Ad associations were already selecting women of the year.
Lois says Mad Men is "nothing more than a soap opera set in a glamorous office."
What does it matter? After all, Lois and his recollections are not without critics of their own.
Mad Men Awards
It matters mostly because movies and television can rewrite history. The awards and critical acclaim being heaped upon Mad Men create the impression that it is accurate in its depiction of the industry during one of its most defining eras.
Since Lois was in his creative prime in the 1960s, his outspoken views of those years at least generate questions about the pictures that Mad Men paints. It makes people like Don Hazen of Alternet ask why the ad men of that time have to be depicted as "such jerks?" He says "as a lot, they are cruel, insensitive jerks, fueled by ego, booze and cigarettes."
Male Chauvinists?
Gender and racial discrimination were certainly rampant in advertising (and most businesses) in the 1960s, but the questions remain:
- Were all the men that male chauvinistic?
- Were agency morals that loose across the industry?
- Was the industry out of touch with the cultural changes of the times?
- Is that the way we should remember the industry of that era?
Where, Lois asks, are the people who inspired the industry?
