Mad men and women: Construction and management of advertising executives in popular culture

This chapter examines the mediated constructions of fictional executives working in advertising using a close reading of the television drama series, Mad Men portraying a fictional advertising agency, Sterling Cooper Draper Price in 1960s America. Applying organisational theory to representations in popular culture, it will suggest that texts such as Mad Men can provide useful insights into management practices at particular periods of historical time by examining three levels of culture operating in the organisation, namely, the observable artefacts, corporate values and workplace assumptions. It will suggest that the themes exploited in each episode across seven seasons, such as marginalisation, sexism, alcoholism, infidelity, work-life balance, lifestyles, consumerism, homophobia, inequity, manipulation, truth, deception, unequal power relations, success and failure, are all relatable for contemporary viewers and have added to the popularity of the series by offering audiences a way of sense-making about their lived experiences and wider societal truths through immersive engagement with cultural artefacts and mediated narratives. © 2016 Intellect Ltd. All rights reserved.