If you’re a fan of AMC’s Mad Men, you might be wondering if Sterling Cooper Draper & Price will be able to hold it together after the loss of the Lucky Strike account and Don’s public purge of a self-promo ad in The Times.
Last week, I thought Sterling was going to jump from a window. This week Cooper asks for his shoes back and walks away. Meanwhile, the other partners are ponying up personal savings to keep the lights on.
Naturally, this fictional crisis is also a mirror of very real problems that exist in the agency business today. Lots of real ad people have been sent packing, and lots of real agency partners are sweating out the economic downturn and the need to provide ever more and better work for less money.
This Sunday Mad Men Season 4 plays out. It’ll be interesting to see where things go. I can see where Peggy will break out big and become the creative star (of the agency and NYC) that Don is now. That’ll be liberating.