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Monday, October 29, 2012

Mad Magazine Collects 60 Years of Parodying Madison Avenue

The following is an excerpt from an article in:


The New York Times
Monday, October 29, 2012

Mad Magazine Collects 60 Years of Parodying Madison Avenue

By STUART ELLIOTT

FOR six decades, a magazine has been putting the “Mad” in Madison Avenue by lampooning — and frequently harpooning — the huckstering of the advertising industry.

The magazine is, of course, Mad, which is celebrating its history of “humor in a jugular vein,” as its slogan once promised, with an anthology to be published on Tuesday titled “Totally Mad: 60 Years of Humor, Satire, Stupidity and Stupidity.” Among the 256 pages of the $34.95 book are generous samples of the wicked ad spoofs, parodies and sendups — takeoffs, as the editors call them — that have been an intrinsic part of Mad since the debut issue in August 1952.

“Of course I grew up reading Mad magazine,” said David Lubars, chairman and chief creative officer at BBDO North America, part of the BBDO Worldwide unit of the Omnicom Group. “I still have in a box somewhere issues from the ’60s that I’m sure are dog-eared and coverless.”

The knowing attitude of Mad’s mockery helped the readers who grew up to join the business realize they must sell “a skeptical audience,” Mr. Lubars said.

“The really best advertising understands that people are suspect” of what ads say, he added. “Transparency and honesty are the way to go.”

Richard Kirshenbaum, a founder of Kirshenbaum & Bond who is now chief executive at the boutique agency NSG/SWAT, also has fond memories of Mad.

“I was absolutely a reader,” Mr. Kirshenbaum said. “I actually had a subscription.”

Mr. Kirshenbaum titled his recent memoir “Madboy,” but it was more in tribute to the television series “Mad Men” than to Mad. Still, the heyday of Mad’s takeoffs coincided with what is now known as the “Mad Men” era, and an article like “The Mad Madison Avenue Primer,” which spoofs agency life in 1960, includes jokes about “bourbon for breakfast” that echo dialogue from “Mad Men.”

What he liked most about Mad, Mr. Kirshenbaum said, is that “it pushed boundaries in a way that was unusual for the time,” by being irreverent and provocative.

For more, visit www.nytimes.com.

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