The Mad Men's Guide to Job Titles at an Advertising Agency
"Advertising is based on one thing: happiness. And you know what happiness is? Happiness is the smell of a new car." "Don Draper, Creative Director, Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce
Below is a pocket-sized org-chart of the 1960s Madison Avenue jungle—translated, updated, and lightly perfumed with bourbon and wit.
Whether you're binge-watching Mad Men for the fourth time or interviewing at a 2025 boutique agency, this lexicon will keep you from calling the Copy Chief "the slogan guy."
1. Creative Director
Then (1963) | Don Draper, hat tilted like a question mark, pitches Kodak while hiding a whole war identity in his desk. Now (2025) | Still the orchestra conductor of ideas, but also the data-whisperer—approving TikTok storyboards at 9 a.m., A/B-testing thumb-stoppers at noon. Super-power: Turning "I don't know what I want" into "Here's the tagline that will tattoo itself on culture."
2. Copywriter
Then | Peggy Olson, fresh from Brooklyn, learns that lipstick is bought by women but sold to men. Now | Writes 6-word push notifications that outperform 30-second TV spots. Secret rite: Every junior copywriter still pins their first live tweet above the desk—digital equivalent of Belle Jolie lipstick copy.
3. Art Director
Then | Stan Rizzo in sideburns, pasting layouts with rubber cement that smells like adolescence. Now | Designs motion systems in Figma, exports 47 sizes before lunch, still argues about kerning. Desk giveaway: A Pantone chip from 1965 used as a bookmark.
4. Account Executive (a.k.a. "The Suit")
Then | Pete Campbell, silver-spooned and smirk-powered, lunches at 21 Club on the client's dime. Now | Account Manager-slash-therapist, juggling Slack, Zoom, and a client who wants to "go viral" by Thursday. KPI: Keep the client happily ignorant of how the sausage is made—unless it's plant-based, because 2025.
5. Media Planner / Buyer
Then | Hidden in the basement with rate cards and a landline, buying full-pages in Life magazine. Now | Programmatic wizard bidding 0.3¢ CPMs in real time while Spotify hums lo-fi beats. Addiction: Dashboards that refresh faster than a martini shaker.
6. Account Planner (a.k.a. "The Voice of the Consumer")
Not in Sterling Cooper—born in 1970s London, imported later. Mission: Translate human truths into briefs so sharp they could slice a necktie. Favourite toy: 200-page ethnography on Gen-Z sadness, distilled into one sentence: "They want brands to feel like group chats, not billboards."
7. Traffic Manager
Then | Joan Holloway, red-pen in one hand, cigarette in the other, routing mechanicals before deadline midnight. Now | Operations or Project Manager, herding 12 time-zones via Asana. Super-hero name: The Deadline Whisperer.
8. Brand Strategist
Didn't exist in Don's era; would have been mistaken for a communist. Purpose: Find the North Star before creatives start sketching spaceships. Caffeine level: Triple-shot cortado with a side of competitive-analysis PDFs.
9. Production Artist (Print) →’ Digital Producer
Then | X-Acto blades and Letraset. Now | Compresses 4K footage until it streams flawlessly on 3G in rural Sindh. Mantra: "Make it smaller, make it faster, make it not break on iOS 17."
10. Office Manager →’ Director of Operations
Then | Joan again—scheduling, payroll, and the occasional emergency tracheotomy (lawn-mower accident, Season 3). Now | Owns vendor relationships, SaaS budgets, and the sacred office cold-brew recipe. Hidden skill: Can fire someone with empathy so pure it feels like a TED Talk hug.
11. Chief Creative Officer (CCO)
Evolution of Don's final-season partnership title. Job: Bless ideas, charm shareholders, apologize for nothing. Clue you've arrived: Your LinkedIn bio is just one word: "Storyteller."
12. Chief Media Officer / Growth Officer
21st-century beast. Mandate: Make every dollar accountable to a pixel, a cohort, a conversion. Nightmare: iOS privacy update that turns the funnel into a tunnel.
13. Intern (Timeless)
Then | Fetching coffee, dry-cleaning, and existential dread. Now | Fetching oat-milk lattes, TikTok trends, and still—existential dread. Rite of passage: Being asked "What do you think?" in a meeting where 6-figure decisions hang in the air.
A Modern-Day Glossary for Your Business Card Drawer
- Creative Technologist "" codes the idea you sketched on a napkin.
- Social Listening Analyst "" reads 50,000 tweets before breakfast so your brand doesn't trend for the wrong reason.
- Influencer Manager "" herds cats with 1 M followers and fragile egos.
- Sustainability Consultant "" makes sure your shoot in Patagonia doesn't actually destroy Patagonia.
Parting Shot from the 37th Floor
Slide open that mahogany bar cart, pour three fingers of something peaty, and remember:
Titles change; human nature doesn't.
Clients still want miracles by Monday, creatives still want immortality by Friday, and somewhere a traffic manager is quietly keeping the universe from unraveling—one deadline at a time.
Cheers to the carnival, —Huzi blogs.huzi.pk
