They say confession is good for the soul. So here goes:

As a somewhat Mad Men type guy myself, a CD/writer type who worked at a major agency on accounts including  BP, Red Roof Inns, Bennigans, Steak and Ale, Mazda, Kroger, Meijer, etc. and now at a smaller agency where I am a partner working on local and regional accounts (sound familiar?), I love watching Mad Men becuase it echos (if somewhat distantly) the real world of advertising.

Now here's the confession part: I DVR-ed the 2-hour season premier of "Mad Men" and purposly started watching 20 minutes late so that I could zip past the commercials. I must be "Mad!!!" Here I am, a guy who makes his living and his career off of commercials, watching a show about people who make commercials, and I didn't watch the commercials! 

Ah, there, I feel better. Now I did pay attention closely as I zipped past the commercials and noted that there wasn't a single one that I hadn't seen before (I watch a lot of TV). But the bigger point is this -- when a TV commercial is crammed into a 4-minute commercial break, even a pro-commercial person like myself has a hard time staying tuned in, let alone the multitude of folks who could give a crap. 

My solution is to have fewer commercials per break. The human mind can only store so many messages at a time, anyway. So have fewer commercials, charge more to air them (clients will scream at first, until they understand that there is more of a chance people will actually watch them), and make Mad Men and Mad Women TV viewers a little less mad! 

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