[plain talk]

“Mad Men really chronicled well how much things changed throughout the decade.”

Sort of. However they exaggerated everything to such a degree it was comical to those of us who actually lived during that period.

Sure people smoked in the office but come on. Drinking in the office? Usually that was done after work. Few Roger Sterling types were doing LSD whose use was not as widespread as that show implies. The series was a farce but I enjoyed the entertainment.

[dfwgator]

I would think at ad agencies with creative people that was pretty much how it went down, not necessarily the same as say a financial or engineering company.

[John Milner]

Kind of like those stupid Austin Powers movies.

I expected a light-hearted comedy with 60’s pop cultural references. Instead it was nothing but the absolute most idiotic sixties stereotypes all rolled into an extremely lame James Bond spoof.

[Clay Moore]

Maybe there was no drinking in the office but there was cold beer in the coke machine at the auto parts store I worked at. We weren’t supposed to crack one before 4:30. I was 16 at the time.

[T.B. Yoits]

Drinking in the office? Usually that was done after work.

I've been in companies that still had their offices furnished as they were back in the sixties. A few things stood out:

-pedestal ashtrays that had the holders for pipes and the knob to knock the burnt tobacco out
-liquor server stations in the side cabinets
-steam radiators
-outside windows that could open
-swivel windows located above doors to halls to circulate air
-paper weights that were needed because of fans and open windows prior to air conditioning
-two-prong electrical outlets and very few outlets overall
-floor lamps
-tile floors instead of carpet in offices

Retired military I was stationed with described smoking and drinking in the offices "back in the day". The drinking was described as something for after lunch and important meetings.

[x]

Or when Betty Draper has a picnic and leaves all her trash on the grass in the park. I'm thinking even back then, you probably didn't graduate Bryn Mawr thinking that was something you could do.

There were a lot of plot problems with the series. There was also a definite bias. Don's daughter went through all these changes, while his son stayed the same age for the whole decade. The appeal was the recreation of the physical look of the 1960s.