I am a massive fan of the TV show, Mad Men. If you haven’t heard or seen this yet, here is a quick synopsis, sans any spoilers. The basic premise revolves around a fictional New York advertising company and the personal and professional trials and tribulations of a variety of staff in the 60’s and 70’s. There is also a good underlying theme of social developments in America across the time span of the show. One of the main protagonists, is Don Draper. Don is a former war veteran, turned sales person before joining an advertising agency. The show ran for 7 seasons from 2007-2015 and was so popular at its peak, that a series of Mattel dolls was produced for 4 of the main characters.
Who were the Mad Men?
Although the first season aired in 2007, it wasn’t until 2013 probably, before I started to binge watch Mad Men. The reason for this delayed viewing was the name of the program. The name didn’t resonate with me and it wasn’t clear what it was about. I didn’t realise it was about the advertising staff based on New York’s Madison Avenue – the “Mad Men", with Mad referring to Madison. Considering I was involved in marketing and advertising as a profession, I am disappointed to have missed it from the beginning.
As I said, coming to the TV show late does irk me slightly, especially as I was on Madison Avenue in 1998, staying at the Roosevelt Hotel, which co-incidentally featured in Mad Men – how cool was I?? I drank in the same bar as Don himself (not a spoiler), possibly the greatest ever fictional advertising creative director!
Mad Men post #MeToo
Obviously, the title is inherently sexist, especially given the advent of the #metoo movement which grew momentum and international recognition 10 years after the show debuted. The sad fact is that the vast majority of executives would have been male back in the 1960’s and 1970’s. I haven't re-watched this since 2017 and no doubt scenes and storylines will be even more awkward and shocking than they were, the first time I saw them.
What on earth has Mad Men got to do with our business?
Well, we wrote about wanting to create a new brand for the local Northern Ireland market in our first blog post. We picked the name HappyJobsNI.com for our cost effective local recruitment brand. Quick straw poll – does this name convey what we do? Or is it another ambiguous title like Mad Men?
Please let us know, we would love to hear from you.
So, we are clear about what we do, clear about what we charge and clear about the service you receive. So why not give us a try? Don’t be the late kid to the party and start using us today to save money. Since our first blog post last week, we have just had an update a possible vaccine for COVID-19 in the last 2 days. Perhaps some of the UK population will be vaccinated by the end of 2020, pending a successful approval from the Regulator. Let’s sincerely hope we are all very happy people when we have all had a tested vaccine and return to some form of normality in 2021.
In the meantime, I will leave you with 2 tips:
Go watch or re-watch Mad Men, it can be found on Amazon Prime currently.
Use www.happyjobsni.com for your next hire and save yourself some money.
Stay Happy folks