Mad Men Unbuttoned
August 8th 2010 05:04
:
Natasha Vargas-Cooper
A delicious and visually arresting celebration of the cultural and artistic ephemera from the award-winning show
MAD MEN
UNBUTTONED
A Romp Through 1960s America
Natasha Vargas-Cooper
Even if you've never watched the TV show Mad Men, chances are you've heard a colleague chatting about it at the water cooler. TV's sleeper hit set in the 1960s world of Madison Avenue advertising executives has taken the world by storm - and for good reason. The New York Times called the show groundbreaking for luxuriating in the not-so-distant past.
Why are people so obsessed with this show?
Beyond the sumptuous set design and trance-inducing actors that have defined the critically acclaimed series, there is high art at play. Embedded in the show's three seasons there are hundreds of cultural nuggets that capture the historical themes of the mid-century - like the diminution of social order to the giant consumerist boom.
From lowbrow ephemera like iconic beer, bra, and shaving cream ads, to the avant garde expressions of Mark Rothko, to political assassinations to Drexel end tables, all of these precious morsels capture the zeitgeist of the 1960s.
Journalist and obsessive Mad Men fan Natasha Vargas-Cooper has collected and analysed these nuggets in one place, so readers can run their fingers over the ads, the sex, the politics, the social mores of the mid-century.
The book will take the richest references in the show and regard each as a cultural artifact: the famous 1962 Lucky Strike ad, a reference to ad-dynamo Julian Koenig, or an Edo era painting that adorns a wall in Sterling Cooper headquarters.
A discursive look at American history during the mid-century, tasty eye candy and with a colour photograph on each and every page, the book is the ultimate reader's companion to the show.
Natasha Vargas-Cooper is a reporter in Los Angeles. She spends most of her time writing for The Awl, but her work has also appeared in E! Online, Gawker, Black Book Magazine, Interview Magazine, Radar and Book Browse. She also spent several years working as a union organiser and health policy analyst for a labour union in Los Angeles and Washington DC.
Mad Men Unbuttoned: A Romp Through 1960s America
by Natasha Vargas-Cooper
ISBN: 9780061991004; TPB; $27.99
ISBN: 9780734064242; E-PUB; $21.99
Publication Date: 1 September 2010
MAD MEN
UNBUTTONED
A Romp Through 1960s America
Natasha Vargas-Cooper
Even if you've never watched the TV show Mad Men, chances are you've heard a colleague chatting about it at the water cooler. TV's sleeper hit set in the 1960s world of Madison Avenue advertising executives has taken the world by storm - and for good reason. The New York Times called the show groundbreaking for luxuriating in the not-so-distant past.
Beyond the sumptuous set design and trance-inducing actors that have defined the critically acclaimed series, there is high art at play. Embedded in the show's three seasons there are hundreds of cultural nuggets that capture the historical themes of the mid-century - like the diminution of social order to the giant consumerist boom.
From lowbrow ephemera like iconic beer, bra, and shaving cream ads, to the avant garde expressions of Mark Rothko, to political assassinations to Drexel end tables, all of these precious morsels capture the zeitgeist of the 1960s.
Journalist and obsessive Mad Men fan Natasha Vargas-Cooper has collected and analysed these nuggets in one place, so readers can run their fingers over the ads, the sex, the politics, the social mores of the mid-century.
The book will take the richest references in the show and regard each as a cultural artifact: the famous 1962 Lucky Strike ad, a reference to ad-dynamo Julian Koenig, or an Edo era painting that adorns a wall in Sterling Cooper headquarters.
A discursive look at American history during the mid-century, tasty eye candy and with a colour photograph on each and every page, the book is the ultimate reader's companion to the show.
Natasha Vargas-Cooper is a reporter in Los Angeles. She spends most of her time writing for The Awl, but her work has also appeared in E! Online, Gawker, Black Book Magazine, Interview Magazine, Radar and Book Browse. She also spent several years working as a union organiser and health policy analyst for a labour union in Los Angeles and Washington DC.
Mad Men Unbuttoned: A Romp Through 1960s America
by Natasha Vargas-Cooper
ISBN: 9780061991004; TPB; $27.99
ISBN: 9780734064242; E-PUB; $21.99
Publication Date: 1 September 2010
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