Mad Ave Racism Pushes Creative to Extremes in 'Mad Man'

Glover's James Pattersonish short, cliffhanger chapters are the perfect pace for keeping up with the unraveling Joseph. Glover also does a nice job with character development -- I began to care about Joseph, who becomes disenchanted with the ad business and self-destructive by getting his revenge --using extortion and murder -- from those who used and mistreated him. I was frustrated with him, angry with him, came to understand his pain and madness, and couldn't wait to see what happened next. Glover uses Joseph and his victims' conversations to expose some very real and raw feelings about the ad business workplace environment. In one scene we hear Joseph, with gun in hand, complaining about exclusion, hierarchy, lack of access, and stolen ideas, while his frustrated victim points to black execs who embrace victimization and therefore are viewed as whiners and ungrateful. What was particularly interesting are the ideas raised in the Afterword. Glover lays out the credentials of brilliant black ad execs like Harry Webber, who created "national campaigns that became household words" ("I am stuck on Band Aid"), or Carol H. Williams, who animated the Pillsbury Dough Boy and created the "Strong Enough For a Man, but Made for a Woman" campaign for Secret Deodorant. He also questions why, despite claims of a "level playing field," there are no African Americans heading mainstream agencies in 2011 America? This and other documented facts below, brought to light by the Madison Avenue Project underscore the realities of African-American ad execs frustration:

Mad Ave Racism Pushes Creative to Extremes in 'Mad Man'

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