What is the advertising agency in Mad Men?
Quick answer
At the start of Mad Men, Don Draper is the creative director at Sterling Cooper, a fictional advertising agency on Madison Avenue in 1960s New York. Over the series, the agency changes names several times, most famously to Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce. The AMC drama ran for seven seasons from 2007 to 2015.
Key facts
- Network
- AMC
- Years
- 2007–2015 (7 seasons, 92 episodes)
- Creator
- Matthew Weiner
- Setting
- New York City, 1960–1970
The agency’s many names
| Name | When |
|---|---|
| Sterling Cooper | Seasons 1–3 |
| Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce | Founded at the end of season 3 |
| Sterling Cooper & Partners | After a merger in season 6 |
The agency is named after its founding partners, Roger Sterling and Bertram Cooper.
Main characters
| Character | Actor |
|---|---|
| Don Draper | Jon Hamm |
| Peggy Olson | Elisabeth Moss |
| Joan Holloway | Christina Hendricks |
| Roger Sterling | John Slattery |
| Pete Campbell | Vincent Kartheiser |
| Betty Draper | January Jones |
What “Mad Men” means
The title is a play on Madison Avenue, the heart of the American advertising industry, and the nickname admen supposedly gave themselves in the 1950s.
Why it stood out
- Period detail: clothes, offices, smoking and drinking at work, and attitudes of the 1960s
- Real brands and campaigns, such as Lucky Strike cigarettes and Kodak’s “Carousel”
- Social change: women in the workplace, civil rights, the space race and the assassination of JFK, all seen through the office
It won the Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series four years in a row (2008–2011), and is often ranked among the greatest TV series.
The famous ending
The final episode closes with Don meditating at a retreat in California, followed by the real 1971 Coca-Cola “Hilltop” ad, hinting that he created it.
For other fictional workplaces, see the paper company in The Office and the hospital in Grey’s Anatomy.
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