I used to work in marketing. We had some wonderful clients; but often, you would have this situation: you go to them with an incisive, creative idea that will get attention and increase their saies. The clients hate it and trash the idea. Then the project boss rewords your idea and says, "Let's do this instead", nearly word for word what you said. Then all his minions applaud the boss, throw you out of the office and denounce you. It happened a good 20% of the time with new pitches. People want things to be different, but they don't want them to change.
LOL...so MAD MEN wasn't far off. :-)
Your comment puts me in mind of the time we constructed a plan to prove that the test article met spec. It was the only way we could see to do it, yet the boss balked. We talked it over, and my idea was agreed to: reword the same plan so that it looked different, superficially. A distinction without a difference. That plan was approved.