By Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke 5/21 6:34pm

The Transom

Ad Man George Lois.

The CLIO Awards: What’s The Big Idea?

The 54th annual CLIO Awards ceremony, held last week, seemed to straddle some kind of line between innovation and industry nostalgia—much like the ads they were celebrating. Instead of The Waldorf Astoria, they were held at the Natural History Museum. Instead of Paul Newman, who gave the keynote speech on a recent episode of Mad Men, the ceremony was hosted by Modern Family’s Eric Stonestreet. And instead of dinner, there were hors d’oeuvres during a pre-ceremony cocktail hour.

But some things never change.

“What this night is really about is getting through these awards as fast as we can so we can all go drink again,” Mr. Stonestreet said, to cheers. Read More

By Kevin Seccia 5/06 1:12pm

satire

(Photo credit: AMC).

Memo From Mad Men‘s Human Resources Department Re: Changes

To: Employees of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce

From: HR

Subject: Changes

 To all staff,

I would like to take this opportunity to address the rumors that have been floating around the office about a potential merger.  Yes, it’s true! Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce will be merging with Cutler, Gleason & Chaough effective immediately.

Undoubtedly this WILL affect some of you. The merger offers an exciting opportunity to grow our business and reevaluate all of your contributions as we embark on an exciting future. While we know that this might make some of you nervous about job security, we encourage everybody to embrace the changes and continue to strive for excellence. Please know that while restructuring does create an opportunity to address redundancies, we hope that everybody knows that we are grateful for the start-up challenges and appreciate all of your work. Read More

By Kevin Seccia 4/29 12:20pm

satire

(Photo credit: AMC)

Memo From Mad Men‘s Human Resources Department

To: Employees of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce

From: HR

Subject: Recent Events

To all staff,

Just wanted to touch on a few reminders. We are all proud of the great work being done here at SCDP and very excited to see that work being rewarded by the advertising community. With that being said let’s go over some award show etiquette. Read More

By Kara Boomgarden-Smoke and Kevin Seccia 4/22 1:51pm

satire

(Photo credit: AMC)

Memo From Mad Men’s Human Resources Department

To: Employees of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce

From: HR

Subject: Reminders

To all staff,

Just a quick reminder, all meetings should happen in the office, during office hours. Otherwise, it is considered entertaining.

We have two conference rooms available and would be happy to accommodate any needs you may Read More

By Drew Grant 4/16 4:18pm

Exclusive video

Video

Don Draper, killing it. (AMC)

Update: Exclusive: Every ‘Next Week, on Mad Men‘ Promo on AMC (Video)

Update: Matt Zoller Seitz of Indiewire’s Press Play blog noted that the this concept had a predecessor in their own “The Ultimate ‘Next on Mad Men‘ Preview Clip“. We’ve added it after the jump, so you can compare for yourselves.

There has to be some sort of running gag over at AMC HQ regarding the ridiculousness of their Mad Men promos. Nothing happens! Every week, we find out that if we stay tuned next Sunday, we can watch Don pick up a phone, Betty furrow her eyebrows, and Roger say “Well, that was something!” Pete is shown changing TV stations as some sort of meta-commentary on what we wish we were doing, instead of watching Mad Men commercials.

Whatever the answer, if you’ve never seen one of these advertisements, The Observer made a ultimate compilation mix. Feel free to play on a loop as a substitute for actually watching the show. Read More

By Drew Grant 4/08 2:16pm

satire

Business as usual. (AMC)

Memo From Mad Men‘s Human Resources Department Re: Office Morale

To: Employees of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce

From: HR

Subject:  Policy Review

To all staff,

We hope you had a lovely Christmas and a happy New Year to boot! We know that 1968 is going to be a huge year for Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, one in which we’ll see all our targets hit. On that note, we hope you all enjoyed your holiday bonuses, which–while not as large as the number circulating around the rumor mill in the office due to some financial irregularities–were still quite competitive. A new year is a fresh start, and with that in mind, we ask that you all take a moment to review the SCDP employee handbook, so we can learn from our hiccups last quarters and move forward. (Note on handbooks: If you haven’t received yours, ask your secretary to find it.) Read More

By Drew Grant 1/15 8:00pm

As Seen On TV

From clockwise left: Damian Lewis in Homeland, Steve Buscemi in Boardwalk Empire, Andrew Lincoln in The Walking Dead, Jon Hamm in Mad Men, and Bryan Cranston on Breaking Bad. (Ed Johnson)

Bad Men: TV’s Most Reprehensible Antiheroes and the Women Who Love Them

On Sunday night, as Tina Fey and Amy Poehler were making history as the first two women to successfully elbow out a male host for the Golden Globes, audiences took in an unprecedented display of girl power. With Lena Dunham winning for Best Actress in a Comedy, Girls taking Best Comedy, and Julianne Moore winning for Game Change, we trumpeted a new era … one in which women could not only captivate an audience but do so with an unlikable protagonist. (Hannah Horvath is no Tony Soprano, but she can be plenty unappealing at times.)

Many of the night’s other nominees, including the stars of Veep and Nashville, fit into the same category, as did the un-nominated (but still there in spirit) Edie Falco in Nurse Jackie, Laura Linney in The Big C and Laura Dern in the criminally under-watched Enlightened, which premiered its second season this week. This last is perhaps the best example of these hard-to-watch heroines, with Ms. Dern playing the most delusional, self-righteous and self-martyring female antihero ever to traipse through premium cable.

It was a great night for rude, crude, progressive women. Unfortunately, it was an even better night for Bad Men. Read More