《广告狂人》令女广告人爱恨交织

    即便是今天，女性在广告界高管中仍属凤毛麟角，虽然中层管理人员中已有相当多的女性。2011年Catalyst Census调查显示，有几家广告和信息公司，包括麦格劳-希尔（McGraw Hill）、新闻集团（News Corp.）和宏盟集团（Omnicom Group）等都没有女性高管。今年，美国最大的广告行业协会——美国广告公司协会（American Association of Advertising Agencies）的27名董事会成员中只有6人是女性。

    即便是在Catalyst研究中表现最好的维亚康姆（Viacom）和时代华纳有线电视（Time Warner Cable）等公司，公布的女性高管占比也只略高于30%，约为财富500强公司女性高管占比14.1%的两倍。

    相比之下，美国劳工统计局（Bureau of Labor Statistics）的数据显示，2010年在7.1万个广告和推广经理职位中女性占比为2/3，广告销售职位占比近半（46%），营销和销售经理占比也达到了43%。

    然而，据AMC的一位发言人称，女性是《广告狂人》一剧收视人群的绝对主力，在第四季所有观众中的占比达到了57%。

    令卡贾诺感兴趣的是今昔客户态度的相似之处以及剧情描述的办公室罗曼史。她说：“我们可以看到，必须要说服，有时还需要引导客户……去做正确的事情。”同时，卡贾诺认为，德雷柏能在酒吧里或上班乘车途中洞察人性，这种能力在当今依然重要。“即便是有六英尺厚的资料……各方面的研究铺天盖地，我最好的点子还是来自于对人的观察，就和剧中人物一样。”

    对于剧中男女相遇的场景，最后或是在办公室内鱼水相欢，或是海誓山盟，卡贾诺认为也很真实。她说：“我和我的丈夫就是在办公室相遇的。很多很多我认识的其他夫妻也是因为广告行业才走到了一起。”据她透露，至少有30对夫妻在李奥贝纳相遇并结婚。当年，她的丈夫杰瑞•卡贾诺的办公室比她低了五层。“格子间的设计几乎已经让办公室里的鱼水之欢绝迹了。”

    剧中最有权势的女性可能是至今还一直保守着德雷柏身份秘密的前妻贝蒂，也可能是掌管着秘书室的红发女郎琼，第四季她被擢升至高级行政职务——但薪水没有涨。不过，当今广告界的很多女性更多地自比佩吉，这位干劲十足、由秘书半路出家的文案人员。

    “我想整个业内，可能人人都觉得自己是佩吉，”洛杉矶72andSunny公司的战略总监凯利•肖弗称。“我们必须要非常顽强，不断抗争。她为求得认可而抗争。她真的非常看重自己的工作。”

    至于唐•德雷柏，肖弗表示，她的广告公司永远不会聘这样的人，她更看重合作以及团队合作，而不是个人主义。而且，她说，他这种“受尽煎熬、迷恋青春的创意灵魂”在纽约更多见，而不是加州。“他在我们的眼中并不神秘”。

    译者：老榆木

   Women are still a minority within many ad agencies' executive suites, though they are plentiful in the middle. Several advertising and information companies, including McGraw Hill (MHP), News Corp. (NWS) and Omnicom Group (OMC), had no female executive officers, according to the 2011 Catalyst Census. This year, only six of the 27 board members of the American Association of Advertising Agencies, the industry's leading trade association, are women.

    Even those with the best track records according to Catalyst's research -- Viacom (VIA) and Time Warner Cable (TWX) -- reported around a little over 30% women among top officers, about double the 14.1% female officers at all Fortune 500 companies.

    By contrast, women hold two-thirds of the 71,000 advertising and promotions manager jobs, nearly half (46%) of advertising sales jobs and 43% of the marketing and sales manager positions in 2010, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

    Yet women made up a majority of "Mad Men" viewers, accounting for 57% of viewers in season four, according to an AMC spokesperson.

    Caggiano sees parallels between clients' attitudes then and now, and in the office romances depicted on the show. "Clients … have to be convinced and sometimes seduced into doing what is the right thing, as we see it," she says. She also holds that Draper's ability to grab insights and see human nature out in the world as he's sitting in a bar or on the train heading to work still applies today. "Even with studies piled six feet high … and research everywhere, I get my best ideas from watching people, the same as they did."

    She also sees truth in the scenes where guy meets girl, and they end up half-dressed on his office couch or saying vows of eternal love. "I met my husband at the office. Many, many other couples who I know met in advertising," she says, claiming that at least 30 couples met and married while at Burnett. Her husband, Jerry Caggiano, worked five floors down from her. "Cubicles have kind of put an end to that -- sex in the office."

    The most powerful woman on the show may be Draper's ex-wife, Betty, who has kept his secret identity to herself so far. Or perhaps it's Joan, the redhead who runs the secretarial pool and in season four was promoted to a senior administrative role -- without a pay increase. Yet many advertising women today relate more to Peggy, the perky secretary-turned-copywriter.

    "Industry-wide, I think everybody feels like Peggy these days," says Kelly Schoffel, strategy director of 72andSunny in Los Angeles. "You have to be really tenacious. You have to keep fighting. She's fighting for recognition. She really cares about the work."

    As for Don Draper, Schoffel says he would never be hired at her agency, which she says strives for collaboration and ego-less team members. Plus his type -- "tortured creative soul clinging to his youth" -- is more common in New York than California, she says. "He's been unraveling before our very eyes."