Mad Men and its unacknowledged antisemitism

Clare Spark Discussion

There have been a remarkable number of blogs in websites celebrating or lamenting the end of seven seasons of the Matthew Weiner-created series Mad Men, which purports to depict how advertising evolved during the tumultuous 1950-early 1970s.

No one, to my knowledge, has noted the subtext of antisemitism that accompanies the writing of the series, though the  Washington Post played up the very minor explicit Jewish angle in a recent interview with Matthew Weiner.

I wrote two blogs on the series, both noting how many daring artists are hostile to the advertisers who make their salaries possible, imagining that they are critics of the status quo. The second one especially emphasized the latent antisemitism in the characterization of the leading figure Don Draper (played by the dark-haired Jon Hamm).

I would appreciate feedback on both blogs. The more recent one is here (and is linked to the first one): http://clarespark.com/2015/05/18/matthew-weiners-mad-men-and-the-double-audience/. Those of you who teach in the humanities may appreciate the weight I give to "irony" as an inadequate response to the problem of repressive societies that hamper universalist ethics and cultural freedom..