Life before and after Mad Men.

In 2007, a new TV show debuted on the fledgling AMC cable network. It was an American period drama about advertising in the 1960s, and it was called “Mad Men”. Suddenly, the world of advertising appeared exotic and beautiful.

My career as a copywriter can be split into two parts: “Before Mad Men” and “After Mad Men”.

“Before Mad Men”

When I used to meet people for the first time, one of their first questions would inevitably be “What do you do?” (Often this question would come before “What’s your name?”). At this point, I would take a deep breath. My answer, “I am a copywriter”, would get two kinds of reactions:

a). Most would make a face like they did not understand. Their eyebrows would rise as if to say, “That sounds like a made up job”, and their eyes would dart around the room in that “Save me, I am stuck talking to this odd person” vibe.

b). But that was better than what other people would say: “Great, a copyrighter! Can you help me register some intellectual property?”

I blame the confusing job title for all of this. Why not ad writer? You’d think that a profession that consisted of selling things with words, clear communication and effectively naming things would come up with a better name for itself. But no. We are forever stuck with this clumsy title. And I’ll tell you why.

In the late 1800s, when modern print advertising started thriving, newspapers did not have the technology to reproduce photographs or graphics. It was all just type, so the writers did everything connected with an ad: ideas, words, everything. It was the writer’s job to check the first printed copy for mistakes. So conversation began to revolve around the word copy. “Who wrote this copy?” “Moriarty, the copywriter.” So copy came to mean “the words in an advertisement.”

Before Mad Men, being a copywriter was never something that would impress anyone, and it took me years to realise that people did not really care what I did, they were merely asking me about my job so I would return the question. It’s just like when people ask about your weekend, they are only really asking so they can tell you about their plans.

“After Mad Men”

Everything changed in 2007 with the arrival of Mad Men. Now when I say I am a copywriter, people say “Oh right, you’re Peggy”.