The Steam Room: Are things really that different today?

The Steam Room is our guest blogger series in which media executives can “blow off some steam” in anonymous posts and hopefully start some conversation on the issues that are facing the industry. Feel free to comment and visit the Contact page if you’d like to contribute!

By Michael Fairhaven

The Emmy award winning show Mad Men is supposed to showcase what the advertising industry was a generation ago. Drinking, sexism, and general debauchery all in the name of doing business in the advertising industry.

But recently I had the chance to spend extended time with some agency folks and I starting thinking if we’re really all that removed from the generation ago that’s portrayed in the show. And worse yet, a real concern came over me when I watched in amazement as these Millenials drank themselves into a stupor on consecutive nights. Actually, after the first night ended at 4:30am, the next “night” started with a cocktail by the pool a little before noon the next day. Adding to the scene was the fact that there was skinny dipping, room swapping at night and general lewdness and sexual references sprinkled in throughout the entire time.

When the conversation turned toward “a week in the life of an agency person,” it was revealed that it’s common for them to drink 4 or 5 nights a week. In fact, the day before I joined them, they were out until 3am at a going away party which had a few of them drinking so much they couldn’t remember the ending of their evening, or how they got home. 4 or 5 nights a week of drinking? Is that possible? I know it’s not healthy no matter what the French say about red wine.

I was somewhat relieved this week when I met with a senior team director at an agency (albeit 27 years old) who told me that she doesn’t go out anymore. She’s over the whole thing and would rather stay later to get her work done and go home. I’m taking solace in that as the agency people of today grow up, they too will get off the bottle. In the meantime, I’ll be watching Mad Men and relating the characters to people I know in today’s agency world.

The opinions expressed in guest blog posts reflect those of the individual blogger and not those of Beverly Weinstein, Markham Media or its constituents.