Don Draper was always shown to be a gifted writer onMad Men— that’s why he was the agency’s creative director — but he wasn’t the best writer at Sterling Cooper. Although he never applied his writing talent outside the advertising industry,Don clearly had a knack for language and a vivid imagination.Don’s impassioned, family-focused pitchfor the “Carousel” is what won over Kodak. Even in an inebriated state, he managed to rattle off a dozen impromptu slogans for Life cereal (although the one they liked turned out to have been inadvertently plagiarized).
Whenever the agency was in a jam, Don’s unorthodox scheme to fix the problem always involved the written word. Don’s anti-tobacco letter toThe New York Timesstuck it to Lucky Strike and saved the company from bankruptcy. When the executives at a different agency were caught throwing water balloons at Black protestors on the street, Don capitalized on their bad press to give his own agency some good press. He took out an ad describing SCDP as “an equal opportunity employer” where the “windows don’t open.”Don was a great writer, but the agency had an even better one.
Don was a solid writer in the field of advertising, but the best writer in the office wasn’t even on the creative team. Ken Cosgrove was an accomplished author of fiction.He first broke out when he had a short story called “Tapping a Maple on a Cold Vermont Morning” published in the prestigious magazineAtlantic Monthly, and on top of that, he wrote two novels. Ken became so successful as a writer that it made his co-workers jealous — especially Pete Campbell, who lamented the fame that came with Ken’s publication.
While Ken could write a compelling, well-composed short story worthy of publication, coming up with slogans is a totally different skillset.
There’s evena theory thatMad Menitself is a novel written by Ken. But despite being very talented and successful as a writer, in advertising, Ken only ever worked as an account man. He never made the transition to creative, because it simply didn’t interest him. Copywriting isn’t the kind of writing he wanted to do.Ken worked purely to make money, so he could spend as much time as possible writing fictionand being with his family. While Ken could write a compelling, well-composed short story worthy of publication, coming up with slogans is a totally different skillset.
He might not have been a good fit for the creative team, buthe was really good at his job as an account man. Ken is great with people, so he won over clients and landed new business left and right. When Ken shared a title with Pete as accounts director, Pete became envious of just how many accounts Ken was bringing in. Since he was making a ton of money as an account man and it left him with plenty of time to work on his fiction, Ken never considered a move to creative.
Ken Became Vengeful After Being Fired
Towardthe end ofMad Men, Ken almost got a happy ending, but his circumstances changed, and he became vengeful and vindictive. When SCDP was acquired by McCann Erickson,Ken’s wife Cynthia encouraged him to quit his job and get out of the advertising business altogether. They’d saved up enough money to survive without it, and she felt that Ken would be much happier if he left the agency and focused on writing fiction full-time. If he’d stuck to that plan, he could’ve achieved the personal fulfillment that eluded mostMad Mencharacters.
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But just when Ken was getting ready to leave the business,he was blindsided by a firing. Ferguson was resentful that Ken had badmouthed McCann after leaving the company, so he ordered Roger to get rid of him. Instead of leaving the industry, Ken became one ofMad Men’s low-key villainsand decided to keep working just to spite his former colleagues. InMad Men’s final season, he took over his father-in-law’s job at Dow Chemicals — a major client of SCDP — so he could give his ex-employers a hard time.
Mad Men
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Mad Men is a drama series set in 1960s New York, focusing on the lives of competitive men and women working in Madison Avenue’s advertising industry. The show explores the social mores and cultural dynamics of the era while delving into the personal and professional challenges faced by its characters.
