The Real Don Draper

Vice did a nice little feature on George Lois, the kind of 1960s big-egoed ad man on which Mad Men’s Don Draper was based.

Lois created a number of iconic ad campaigns as well as dozens of fantastic Esquire covers. Or at least he says he did. ;) (via devour)

Update: Here’s the transcript for the episode of This American Life in which Sarah Koenig interviews her father Julian Koenig about George Lois taking credit for some of his best ideas.

In my instance, the greatest predator of my work was my one-time partner George Lois, who is a most heralded and talented art director/designer, and his talent is only exceeded by his omnivorous ego. So where it once would’ve been accepted that the word would be “we” did it, regardless of who originated the work, the word “we” evaporated from George’s vocabulary and it became “my.”

Of course, Koenig also claims to have invented thumb wrestling and to have popularized shrimp in America, so… (via @kevinmeyers)

• advertising
• design
• George Lois
• Julian Koenig
• Mad Men
• Sarah Koenig
• TV

Mad Men coming

Season 5 of Mad Men starts on Sunday. It’s been on hiatus for 12 years, and it might be hard to remember season 4 without some of the Mad Men related info linked below. With such a long break, there’s been quite a bit of Mad Men news floating around. In order to cut it down a little, most of this stuff is from the last week or so. Don’t try to eat it all in one sitting you’ll get a stomach ache and have to sleep off your hangover on your office couch.

-Here’s where we left off in Season 4.

-Everything Don Draper Said in Season 4.

-Although, Matthew Weiner has asked reviewers with advanced copies of Sunday’s premier not to discuss key details in their previews, such as the year this season takes place, Weiner is changing a song featured in the episode because it wasn’t released until 6 months after the episode takes place. ‘Look of Love’ was released at the beginning of 1967 placing the episode in, or around, the summer of 1966. This is about a year after Season 4 ended. Maybe this is subterfuge?

-George Lois is still mad.

-Newsweek recently had an issue celebrating the return of Mad Men where the ads were all retro. Here are all those ads.

-The psychotherapist who consulted on Mad Men’s development talks about why the characters feel so real.

-Some (spoiler free) previews of what to expect on Sunday.

Imagine if Mad Men was a Nintendo game…

• Don Draper
• George Lois
• Mad Men
• Matthew Weiner
• TV

George Lois on his favorite Esquire covers

Legendary art director George Lois shares his memories about his twelve favorite Esquire covers.

He tells how the job came about: “I was a well-known advertising agency guy, and the former editor of Esquire, Harold Hayes, he called me up. We met at The Four Seasons, and he said, ‘Could you help me try to do better covers?’ I got this Bronx accent, and he had this southern drawl, and it must have been a funny discussion. ‘You have to go outside and find a designer, a guy who’s talented at graphic design, but understands politics, culture, and movies,’ I told him, and he said, ‘Do me a favor, could you do me just one cover?’ I said, ‘Okay, I’ll do you one.’”

Here’s one I’d never seen before, featuring Chief John Big Tree, the supposed model for the Indian Head nickel.

• design
• Esquire
• George Lois
• magazines