I think you’d be hard-pressed to find an agency that doesn’t have at least two or three employees addicted to Mad Men. Over the last week, several people (including me) here at ALPHA were anxiously awaiting the season premiere last night. I personally changed travel plans in order to make sure I was at home watching it in HD in my favorite chair. What is that all about? What is the deal with this show?

Is it the brilliant (and award-winning) writing? The extremely detailed costuming and set design? The fact that no matter how much of a jerk Don can be, he’s still our tortured hero? All of that makes for great TV, but what makes Mad Mentruly addicting? My opinion is that it harks back to a time that most of us in agency life today have only heard stories about and could never even imagine. Heck, a lot of us weren’t even born yet! It’s ad men like Don & Roger who paved the way for the agency life of today, and Mad Men is a wild education in what that paving project might have been like.

It is fascinating to see the creative team prepare for pitches by actually drawing something on a piece of paper. Bright and shiny Macs have totally eliminated the need for markers, paints and pencils in today’s agencies. Not that one is better than the other, but there is something quite magical about putting a pen to paper and creating a work of art. And I love that each week an old campaign is brought back to life. Some are fictional, but on the big brands you’re left wondering if what you are seeing on TV is even close to how the campaigns were actually conceived.

So, yes Mad Men has a great storyline and a beautiful ensemble cast — but it also reminds us that there is something in the past that we can all learn from today, whether it is some inspiration for a project or campaign or just the reiteration of the most valuable lesson in life: that excess is usually NOT what is best! (I mean, really, do they need a mini bar ineveryone’s office??)