Mad Men and PR’s Golden Sins

I have been an on-again, off-again fan of the AMC series “Mad Men” since its debut but each year I try to re-engage because it is my wife’s “appointment” TV show.

So you didn’t have to twist my arm last night to still down to the season premiere, especially since it was titled “public relations.”

(SPOILER ALERT)

In the episode, the folks at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, explore what I like to call the “Two Golden Sins of Public Relations.”

There are really more than two, but let’s focus on those for the sake of this post.

Golden Sin #1:  Do not create news, when no news is there:

In order to save the young ad agency’s ham account, erstwhile receptionist-turned-copy writer Peggy creates a stunt where she hires two women to fight over the last ham in a grocery store on Thanksgiving Eve.  Through some media connections, a photo of the stunt ends up in the Daily News and some other papers, leading to more ham sales and an extended relationship with the client.  On the flip side, the one woman presses charges against the other and the agency has to literally bail them out and pay them hush money.  The lesson here is while the intension is good, in most cases news creation for news creation’s sake leaves one with an unsatisfying end result.

Even back in the 60’s.

Golden Sin #2:  If you have news and you don’t leverage it, shame on you.

Here the focus is on the ever-mysterious lead creative Don Draper himself.   For those who have not followed the show, The question “Who is Don Draper?” is at the show’s very core and is the lead question asked by an Advertising Age reporter who interviews Draper in the first scene.  Draper’s recent creative approach on an account for the new agency has piqued the trade publication’s interest.

In true Don fashion, Draper is evasive and the subsequent article not only falls flat but ends up losing the agency a major account because Don failed to mention the client in the article (we’ve all been there haven’t we).   In a meeting with his partners Draper is chastised or the missing opportunity and is told that it’s one thing to do “good creative” but his responsibility now is to leverage that work into more new business.

By the end of the episode Draper is sitting over lunch with a Wall Street Journal reporter and giving him the “juicy” story it is now his job to give.

While one can debate whether the Mad Men portrayed 1960’s PR (or PR in general) in a positive or negative light last night, the episode did strike a chord with me about these Golden Sins and how some are still struggling with them 50 years later.

What do you think?  Would love to hear your thoughts on the show.