‘Mad Men’ sells story of 1960 — and today

updated 12:24 p.m. ET July 18, 2007

NEW YORK - At first glance, the world of "Mad Men" seems as distant from the here and now as Neptune.

Welcome to an ambitious new drama on cable's AMC, and to the Sterling Cooper advertising agency perched high above Madison Avenue. The year is 1960.

In this world, women of all ages are girls, and know it. Liquor punctuates the workdays of the men in charge. Everybody smokes — anytime, anywhere — despite the recent Reader's Digest article that warns how cigarettes can kill you.

Meanwhile, the Pill has just burst on the scene. Desperate housewives are trying psychotherapy. A record by a hot young comic named Bob Newhart is slaying listeners with his "button-down mind" (whatever that is).

Plenty of questions (if not so many answers) are blowin' in the wind, and "Mad Men" identifies them vividly.

Window on America
But the charm of this series (premiering Thursday at 10 p.m. EDT) is that it doesn't treat 1960 as a quaint aberration. Instead, "Mad Men" provides an unexpected window on America in 2007. It's a contemporary series, purposefully unfolding at a half-century remove.

"Things don't change, people don't change," insists Matthew Weiner, who created "Mad Men" (and was a writer for "The Sopranos"). "The rules change."

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A good barometer of those rules is advertising.

"It's a reflection of the culture," says Weiner, explaining that ad execs have always aimed "to find out how you feel, then tell you how their product is going to make you feel better."

But in 1960 the advertising business, like so much else, was at a turning point. The rules had been upended a year earlier by the revolutionary Volkswagen campaign that invited drivers to "Think small" and choose the VW Beetle. No grandiose come-on. The pitch was subversive and ironic.

And it's remembered as maybe the greatest ad campaign ever. Advertising would never be the same.

Changing ad landscape
How will Sterling Cooper adapt? That's largely in the hands of its creative director, Don Draper. Played by Jon Hamm ("We Were Soldiers"), Draper is a star at the agency. He's smooth, witty and tormented. And more candid than most.

As he tells an attractive woman over cocktails, "You're born alone and you die alone, and this world just drops a bunch of rules on top of you to make you forget those facts. But I never forget."

The woman asks if love might brighten his outlook.

"What you call love," says Draper, "was invented by guys like me, to sell nylons."

But right now it's Lucky Strike cigarettes he's under fire to sell. And in a tough new regulatory climate, he must hatch a campaign that avoids any claim that Lucky Strikes are somehow beneficial to a smoker's health.

That's not the only thing weighing on him at work. Though barely over 30, Draper feels pressure from Pete Campbell, an even younger up-and-comer eyeing Draper's job. Played by Vincent Kartheiser ("Angel"), Pete is also eyeing Draper's winsome new secretary, played by Elisabeth Moss ("The West Wing") — never mind he's about to be married.

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