creative director before leaving in 1976, later working at some of Manhattan's top ad agencies. Maas takes readers through a typical office day before addressing questions of sex (yes, ad execs slept around, she realizes now), alcohol (it was customary to have a drink before, during, and after lunch), and thornier issues of balancing career demands with motherhood in a time when being a housewife was still the norm. Some of her most interesting insights come from the advertising campaigns themselves, from a failed Shake 'n Bake follow-up (Batter Fry, anyone?) to the phenomenal success of the Maas-driven "I Love New York" campaign. Sexual harassment in the work place -- especially the unsubtle advances of a particular boss Maas describes -- might seem foreign, but as she points out, no human resources department existed and "sexual harassment" hadn't entered the lexicon yet. Maas mixes personal stories with advertising history, making this a compelling read. (less) I was counting down the days until the new season of Mad Men with my panties in a bunch, when I picked up the book Mad Women by Jane Maas. Maas was both a copywriter and a creative director at Ogilvy & Mather in the penis-slinging hustle of the New York advertising world in the 1960s. The book articulates the agony of ecstasy of a career woman in the misogynistic though mesmerizing world of advertising, but readers, w ...more Mad Women: What the fuck do you mean "sexual harassment" didn't exist yet? I was counting