MAD MEN: Entertaining Clients is SO COOL!

Those of us who need a big, delicious fix of Don Draper and his entourage will finally get it when season 4 of MAD MEN premieres on AMC TV July 25^th. Of course “The Queen of the Business Lunch™” will be watching to see how the development of the new start-up, Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, progresses and how they go about romancing all the clients away from their former agency, Sterling Cooper. I anticipate that as the MAD MEN get busy romancing clients, there will be many business lunches and cocktails consumed over the course of the new season.

A visit to the MAD MEN website reveals everything you need to know about what has ALREADY happened on the show; there are few spoilers, if any. But, what you WILL find are recipes for 1960’s cocktails, blogs, fashions from the ’60’s, and even furniture from the era that gave birth to modern advertising. My background in advertising makes every scene that much more delightful, but my career as “The Queen of the Business Lunch™” makes me eat up every scene that has to do with socializing with clients.

In spite of the apparent “glamour” associated with the 3-martini “Power Lunch” and smoking cigarettes, be forewarned: it is NOT cool to get drunk in front of clients! Just ask Freddy Rumsen. Peggy Olson now occupies poor Freddy’s office and drinks from his private bar. It seems society expects us to be able to enjoy a drink or two, but that we should never let our liquor get the better of us. I can’t wait to see Peggy invited to join in on a client lunch. I think her character would bring a lot to “The Art of the Business Lunch”!

Client lunches are so much more sedate these days! Drinking in the middle of the day is typically frowned upon. Drinking in your office is almost never heard of. Yet we need to take our clients out to lunch and build solid relationships with them. We need to seize every opportunity for quality face time. Watch these MAD MEN get in trouble, as I’m SURE they will, and remind yourself that socializing with clients is as important as ever, but you need to take it easy.

MAD MEN is as tasty a treat as it gets. We now know so much more than we did back in the 1960’s. Too much booze will ruin your life, smoking is hazardous to your health, spanking your secretary on the bum will get you sued for sexual harassment, and we need to wear our seat belts. Perhaps our coming of age and today’s era of knowing better – and having better ways of networking –  is just what makes this show so decadent.