Memories of a Mad Man

To the American public, the world of advertising is both fascinating and irritating. This strange combination helps to explain the huge success of the TV show “Mad Men.” Memories of a Mad Man by Don Spector goes even further. Spector, a genuine Mad Man whose career in advertising started in a Madison Avenue ad agency in the early ‘60s, re-creates that wild, woolly, competitive, creative and often outlandish world.
Recounting his travels (and travails) during his ascent from junior copywriter to creative director of two major agencies, he tells of dealing with heroes and villains, with the famous and the infamous. On the way, he answers questions about the advertising world that he’s been asked for decades.
Was there really such thing as a three-martini lunch? There was for many executives, especially those who entertained clients. But there wasn’t even a one-martini lunch for a young copywriter who was not very good at holding his liquor. But that didn’t stop him from doing in-depth expense-account-funded research in New York bars when charged with creating advertising for accounts like Smirnoff Vodka and Johnny Walker Scotch.
In the book, Spector answers one of the questions he’s been asked for decades: where do you get your ideas? The book gives the same answer he has always given: “I don’t know.” But his stories of creative sessions where he and his creative partners groped for ideas are eye opening. Like the time the account executive for 4-Way Nasal Spray came into Spector’s office terrified. He had forgotten to tell the creative department that the client wanted a small point-of-purchase sign for grocers’ shelves. He begged for help. Suddenly Spector blurted out a headline: “Winterize your Nose with Anti-sneeze.”
The client liked it so much that instead of just using it as a display piece and earning the agency a $500 creative fee, they ran it as a national ad earning the agency some $30,000 in commissions. To this day Spector has no idea where that line came from.
Gradually his work brought him in touch with interesting people like the famous Ray Bradbury, the once-famous Lon Chaney Jr. and the soon-to-be famous Ed McMahon. The meetings with them as recounted in the book were sometimes joyful and sometimes painful. And the unexpected always lurked. In one casting session, when he believed he wasn’t going to be chosen, the Emmy-winning star of a major TV police drama suddenly leaped forward with fists raised threatening Spector. Happily, he turned and stormed out of the room.
The book addresses one of the questions people have been asking ever since advertising began—what is the truth about truth in advertising? Have advertisers been unfairly accused of deceitful advertising or were the charges against them legitimate? The book offers several examples to let you decide for yourself. In one commercial, to show the durability of a pickup truck, the truck is pushed out of the cargo hold of a low-flying plane. It drops ten feet, landing hard on the concrete runway. A moment later a man jumps into it and drives it away, proving the truck’s toughness.
The author was friends with the man that created the commercial who told him that the drop and drive-away they used was legitimate. But it took three attempts before the truck survived the hard drop. Was that a legitimate demonstration or should they have told us that only one out of three trials was successful?
Like it or not, advertising plays a major role in our daily life. Whether it’s the deluge of commercials that punctuate our television shows, the ads that fill the spaces in our newspapers and magazines, outdoor boards that dot our skylines or the popup ads that intrude on our Internet time, advertising is present, claiming our time but paying for much of our life. Memories of a Mad Man, with its sometimes humorous, sometimes serious, and sometimes sad stories of the advertising world growing up, opens a door on how we got where we are.