Page 46 - Seniors Today - Oct 2019

No credentials presentation for Mohammed, Don Draper’s Mad Men against today’s Math
he didn’t believe in them like the large agencies. Men. (Thank God for Don that he escaped this ).
Our creds were 12 little chits put into a top hat So it’s hello Data. Hello Content. Goodbye,
(bought from Crawford Market). The chits had good writing. Goodbye language. Goodbye flair
the names of our clients. Pick any one of these and personality. Goodbye Courage. Goodbye
and I will show you the work he would say. Intuition. Goodbye entrepreneurship. Goodbye
Confident that every client’s work was as good Creativity as we know it. Bye-bye pink gins.
as the next one. Guts! Not like the ad men of Maybe the advertising business should move
today. Who hide their worst work behind their smoothly into calculus. I guess it was coming
awards. with the number of times we used the word
‘integrated’, I knew we were unconsciously
From Madness to Sanity nudging ‘integral’. It had to come to this.
‘Perhaps to be too practical is Madness?’ - Goodbye Advertising. God Bless. It was lovely
Miguel De Cervantes in Man of la Mancha knowing you while it was the best fun you could
Mike Khanna. Sane. Calm. Controlled. Shy. have with your clothes on. I still love you.
Introspective. Introvert. Quiet Rage. Learnt
everything there was to learn about advertising
and about managing an agency. Gutsy like hell
again. What was it about these guys? Where
did all that courage come from? Once a client
threatened to speak to Mike Khanna because
I had refused to do a job with an impossible
deadline. He just calmly told the client “If
Prabhakar Mundkur says it can’t be done, it
can’t be done.” Faith in your people. Courage to
call a spade a spade with the client. Confidence.

From Mad Men to Math Men
“We are not in the advertising business any
more,” proclaimed Sir Martin Sorrell some
time ago, like some Nostradamus predicting the
death of advertising as we know it. “Don Draper
wouldn’t recognise Adland,” he said, pitting

46