'Mad Black Men': Yes, There Were Black People In 60s Advertising
When Mad Men first premiered on AMC in 2007, Xavier Ruffin — a young, African-American graphic designer from Milwaukee, Wisc. — really wanted to like it.
"I wanted to be a fan of it when it first came out," Ruffin tells NPR's Arun Rath. "I just had my own personal differences. Not liking the way blacks were represented in their universe. I just couldn't get over it."
Instead of getting over it, he decided to create his own series: Mad Black Men. The first part of the show premiered Friday on the video sharing site DailyMotion.
Mad Men, of course, takes place in the fictional world of 1960s ad agency Sterling Cooper and focuses on the lead character, advertising genius Don Draper. In the "parallel universe" of Mad Black Men, protagonist Ron Rapper gets a job in the Colored Marketing Department at Sterlin Copper.
"[Rapper] is a hotshot ad executive making a name for himself in the New York scene. It's just that when he shows up at places, people are thrown off by the fact that he is non-white," Ruffin explains.
The three admen in the colored marketing department have to take on campaigns targeted at minorities. Their first client: Mississippi Melons. In the show, the art director is asked to make a character's nose and lips bigger because he "isn't black enough."
The show is played pretty straight — it's more of a dramedy than a spoof. Though spoofs are popular, Ruffin didn't really want to be part of that. "What I wanted to do is kind of cater to people who are interested in Mad Men," he says. "I wanted to give them a different lens to look at that universe through."
Mad Black Men - First Day - Part 1 of 6 by MadBlackMen