I watch Mad Men, but I'm not a fan of Mad Men, if that makes sense.

I watch the show regularly, but I could care less about the characters. Don Draper is an ass. He cheats on his wife, but goes ballistic when she leaves him for another man. Roger's not much better and Peggy is just creepy. I find myself more interested in the show when they are in the office of Sterling Cooper working on campaigns. And I find myself more engrossed now that they are in midst of launching their own agency.

Basically, give me the corporate intrigue over the personal drama.

Now that you have to wait a year for a new season, do you need something to hold you over?


Check out Conflicting Accounts: The Creation and Crash of the Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising Empire by Kevin Goldman. Written in 1998, it's an oldie but and goody and much of it is set during the time of Sterling Cooper.

Goldman captures a time when ad men were kings. He chronicles the lives of brothers Maurice and Charles Saatchi, from their modest beginnings to creating one of the largest advertising agency holding companies.

You have your corporate greed and betrayal in the  midst of glitz and glamor...

There's a British take-over of major agencies...

You watch the company founders get kicked out by the board of directors, only to have the brothers create a rival agency and steal the clients from the agency they built...

It sounds like Mad Men's last season, except this is real. Goldman keeps most of the story around the office. You know the good and bad guys and you know who's being used and abused. The players are set and they are given an arena to do their thing. I don't care what happens at  home. I like the soap opera confined to the work day. And thankfully Goldman doesn't write the story like a reporter (which he was for the New York Times), just spewing out facts with a few quotes. Plus, you can see how a lot of industry thinking and excess has lead to many of the problems we face today.

Conflicting Accounts. You may have to search and order it, but it's a worthy find. Mad Men served up like this would make me a fan.

Grade: B