Mad Women

November 14, 2011
Maas’s humorous yet authoritative account of her life in advertising during the Mad Men era is a welcome look behind the curtain into a traditionally male world. Often asked if the popular show accurately depicts women’s second-class standing (and the copious amounts of office sex and drinking) in the 1960s, Maas (Adventures of an Advertising Woman) says yes and no. Hired as a copywriter at Ogilvy & Mather in 1964, she rose to creative director before leaving in 1976, later working at some of Manhattan’s top ad agencies. Maas takes readers through a typical office day before addressing questions of sex (yes, ad execs slept around, she realizes now), alcohol (it was customary to have a drink before, during, and after lunch), and thornier issues of balancing career demands with motherhood in a time when being a housewife was still the norm. Some of her most interesting insights come from the advertising campaigns themselves, from a failed Shake ’n Bake follow-up (Batter Fry, anyone?) to the phenomenal success of the Maas-driven “I Love New York” campaign. Sexual harassment in the work place—especially the unsubtle advances of a particular boss Maas describes—might seem foreign, but as she points out, no human resources department existed and “sexual harassment” hadn’t entered the lexicon yet. Maas mixes personal stories with advertising history, making this a compelling read. Agent, Lynn Nesbit.

May 28, 2012
Riffing heavily on the hit television show Mad Men, Maas's book provides the female point of view of the advertising world of the 1960sâan environment both chaotic and stodgy. The author, who began her advertising career as a copywriter at Ogilvy & Mather and eventually ascended to become chairman of Earle Palmer Brown, tracks her trajectory and the observations she gathered along the wayâabout race, gender, and the difficulties reconciling a working life with a home life. Narrator Coleen Marlo reads Maas's text crisply and cleanly. She effectively creates distinctive voices for Maas's various co-workers and bosses. However, when reading Maas's proseâwhich at times can be a bit dryâMarlo occasionally sounds flat, but this is a minor flaw in an otherwise enjoyable performance. A Thomas Dunne hardcover.