What would Don Draper think about advertising today?

In the Season 3 finale of “Mad Men” on AMC last night, Don Draper and his colleagues set out to create a new advertising agency—along with the fodder for interesting story lines in the next season of the show. But if you flash forward to the advertising industry of today, what would Don Draper think? Would he still like the advertising industry if he took a time capsule and saw what was to come?

Advertising industry veteran Hank Wasiak of The Concept Farm thinks that he would not.

When Wasiak first started working in the advertising industry in the early 1960s, one of his mentors pulled him aside and told him that “You’re going to be in the business with some of the most creative people in the world selling soap to each other.”

And, Wasiak says, his mentor was right. “There were some really great creative people that were just full of ideas and were adventurous,” he said.

The industry today is not lacking creativity, which Don Draper types love, but Wasiak says it has changed in such a way that the “Mad Men” character would probably not be happy about.

“Don Draper wouldn’t like the industry now because of what advertising today is. Rather than being the master of the universe and totally in control, you have to be a maestro and think of yourself as conducting a symphony orchestra of a lot of different communications instruments,” Wasiak said. “You have to lose a lot of control to get traction. In the sixties and seventies, the ad guys wanted to be in total control. We’re not as much in control anymore, so I don’t think Don would like it at all. But I love it.”

What do you think? Would Don Draper like the advertising industry now?

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