In last night’s episode of Mad Men, Don Draper drafts a full page
letter ad that runs in the NY Times titled, “Why I’m quitting
tobacco.” Draper makes a moralist argument, but it’s largely bullshit.
The truth, as his secretary puts it, is to convey “he didn’t dump me;
I dumped him.”
lost half it’s revenue. Don is trying bold, innovative, and risky
steps to drum up business. But where were these bold strokes over the past year of the firm’s
life? Revenue concentration and lack of growth were always issue. Don
shouldn’t have attacked American Tobacco in that year, but what about
an equally bold flourish on another topic? They knew this was going to be a problem yet did nothing to avert it.
They were hooked, like Don’s one-time village girlfriend who
resurfaces in this episode as a heroine addict, on drugs. Getting off
the drugs before they kill you is something I’ve seen almost every
business I’ve been involved with struggle with. As a new entrant, like the new Sterling Cooper or any startup, all you
have is bold and high quality moves. The incumbents are sloppy with
their pitches and lazy with their service because they’ve come to rely
on dominance and reputation. One Internet giant I’m dealing with now,
for example, couldn’t possibly make it harder for me to buy it’s
products. Slow return of phone calls, meetings scheduled weeks out,
etc. And so the ad Don writes should be the work of the startup every day
and especially before and not after the fall. And it doesn’t need to
be controversy. It just needs to be standout. Leave average,
contentment, and things like existing formats and revenue
concentration to the incumbents. They’re the only ones who can afford
such risks because they’ve likely already had their renaissances.
