Explaining the 'Mad Men' Effect

Liberation

Updated Apr. 24, 2017 2:32PM ET / Published Oct. 11, 2011 1:17PM ET

Why is everyone obsessed with Mad Men? The sex-, smoke- and alcohol-fueled world of AMC’s hit series Mad Men has inspired copy cats from ABC's Pan Am to Banana Republic's '60s-inspired clothing line. Los Angeles Times columnist Gregory Martinez has a theory to explain the immense popularity of a show that features unlikable characters, disturbing sexism, and shady business dealings. “Americans like liberation stories." What makes the show so appealing is a nostalgia for the war within the hierarchy of the early 1960s, right before birth-control clinics flourished and hippies camped at Woodstock. Today’s liberated society doesn’t have a bad guy to take down, something audiences long for as they watch the powerful authorities and societal norms of the '60s begin to crumble.

Read it at the Los Angeles Times

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