A REAL-LIFE “MAD MEN” STORY

When it came time for me to look for a job, I knew I wanted to work in midtown Manhattan. So I sent a letter to one of the largest advertising agencies in NY, BBDO, and much to my surprise and delight, they called me back and invited me to come in for an interview.

At that time BBD&O was the second largest ad agency in New York.  I didn’t apply to J. Walter Thompson, the top agency, because I was afraid they would never consider me.  Meanwhile, at BBD&O,  I think I had the shortest interview ever.  The interviewer had my letter in his hand, looked at me with a smile and asked, “You can really take dictation at 105 words per minute?” When I said yes he answered, "I can't talk that fast. When can you start?" And that was it.  I got the job without any tests and was told I could start the following Monday. When I told my parents I got a job at BBD&O advertising, my father asked me what BBD&O stood for. “Batten, Barton, Durstine and Osborn,” I told him. My father shrugged, unimpressed. “That sounds like somebody falling down the stairs,” was his reply.

I was introduced to the 2 account executives I would be working for on the Campbell Soup account. From the very first day the job was interesting and fun. One of the partners, Alex Osborn explained an idea he had: why not bring all the account executives together into a conference room and have them call out any ideas they had to increase sales for our clients.  He said “We’ll call it a brainstorm.”

So that was the very first brainstorm. I was called on to take notes and another secretary who had a stenotype machine was also taking notes. It was a fascinating meeting and when we transcribed the notes, many good ideas were later utilized.

BBDO was a new world to me—a world of Harvard, Princeton, and Yale graduates. My boss was a Scotsman who had been a classmate of John Kennedy. Campbell Soup sponsored the Lassie TV Show and there were always presentations to be completed after hours and questionnaires to be completed about how we rated the show every Monday morning.

Lucky Strike cigarettes was one of our accounts and all the cigarette machines in the office only sold Luckys. Everybody smoked in those days.

We had to test their slogan, "So round, so firm, so fully packed," by ripping apart cartons of different cigarettes to prove their slogan was indeed accurate. (It was.) I learned how to drink martinis just as everyone else, but never in the office as they did in the TV series Mad Men. We only drank after work at the popular advertising hangout, The Ad Lib.

Working at the second largest ad agency in New York City was fun, but back then prejudice and bigotry were the order of the day. There were no Jewish people working there, and only one Italian advertising executive. (I once heard him described condescendingly as having "native intelligence.") 

Bigotry reared its ugly head quite forcefully one day when the secretaries were called to a meeting by the head of the department. He started by saying how the "colored market" was growing enough to warrant the hiring of one or maybe even two colored ad executives. Now the purpose of the meeting was to determine which of us secretaries would object to working with the new person and if there was anyone who would be willing to even be located in close proximity to him. I was absolutely furious; they were talking as though he had a communicable disease! I blurted out that I would be happy to assist him, or them, if they hired two people. What a world we lived in! If you had told me then I'd have the chance to vote for (and see) an African-American President of the United States in my lifetime, I would have said you were dreaming.

Editor’s Note: Although all my mom’s stories have been true, I was a little skeptical about some of the details in this one. Was my mom actually in the room when the word “brainstorm” was coined? I did a little research and she probably was:
https://www.campaignlive.com/article/history-advertising-no-145-alex-osborns-brainstormers/1362408