Son of Mad Men speaks: Reflections on advertising’s creative revolution

Abstract

The famed advertising agency Doyle Dane Bernbach (DDB) comprised second-generation New Yorkers, war veterans, and graduates of NYC public schools and universities. DDB’s Jewish angle could be overt, ‘You don’t have to be Jewish to love Levy’s Rye Bread,’ or covert, as in the VW slogan, ‘It’s ugly but it gets you there.’ Women and Blacks faced outright discrimination; Jews attained rewarding employment but faced segregated neighborhoods and social circles in the evenings. Drawing on a variety of Ego-Documents: interviews, memoirs, websites, and advertisements, this essay places the story of the Jewish ‘Mad Men’ in their proper context.