The Michael & Elliott Company
Television Ad Agencies
January 27, 2010
by David Krell
david@davidkrell.com
If you had to choose an advertising agency, which one would you choose?
Would it be McMahon & Tate? You might bump into Darrin Stephens, a good-natured, smart, creative ad executive with a wife named Samantha who is a little mysterious. You might even say she is bewitching.
Would it be Livingston, Gentry & Mishkin? You might see artist Kip Wilson and word man Henry Desmond. They report to Ruth Dunbar, a red-headed, confident, experienced ad woman.
Kip, Henry, Ruth and Amy, a secretary, start their own commercial production company -- Sixty Seconds Street.
Henry and Kip are friends since childhood. They’re bosom buddies.
Would you choose Jack MacLaren’s agency? He is a success in advertising who started his own agency. He looks a lot like Tom Selleck. You might hear the words ‘the closer’ around his office.
Would you choose The Michael & Elliott Company? Two thirtysomethings named Michael and Elliott started this ad agency in mid-1980’s Philadelphia. By the late 1980’s, the agency went under. Michael and Elliott joined DAA, an advertising powerhouse.
Would you choose Rothman, Greene & Moore? Creative Director Mason McGuire and his irresponsible yet productive copywriter colleague Conner will treat you right. Their slogan might as well be called Trust Me.
Would you choose Sterling Cooper, the prototypical 1960’s ad agency with a charming, mysterious, and instinctive Creative Director -- Don Draper.
Who would you choose to do the photographs for print ads? Would it be Felix Unger, portraits a specialty?
Who would you choose to write a jingle? Would it be Charlie Harper, a womanizing, alcohol loving, Malibu beach house owning songwriter who also houses his brother, a chiropractor, and his brother’s son. Together, they comprise two and a half men.
Whichever agency, photographer, or jingle writer you select to promote your product or service, you have plenty of choices in the annals of television history.
david@davidkrell.com
If you had to choose an advertising agency, which one would you choose?
Would it be McMahon & Tate? You might bump into Darrin Stephens, a good-natured, smart, creative ad executive with a wife named Samantha who is a little mysterious. You might even say she is bewitching.
Would it be Livingston, Gentry & Mishkin? You might see artist Kip Wilson and word man Henry Desmond. They report to Ruth Dunbar, a red-headed, confident, experienced ad woman.
Kip, Henry, Ruth and Amy, a secretary, start their own commercial production company -- Sixty Seconds Street.
Henry and Kip are friends since childhood. They’re bosom buddies.
Would you choose Jack MacLaren’s agency? He is a success in advertising who started his own agency. He looks a lot like Tom Selleck. You might hear the words ‘the closer’ around his office.
Would you choose The Michael & Elliott Company? Two thirtysomethings named Michael and Elliott started this ad agency in mid-1980’s Philadelphia. By the late 1980’s, the agency went under. Michael and Elliott joined DAA, an advertising powerhouse.
Would you choose Rothman, Greene & Moore? Creative Director Mason McGuire and his irresponsible yet productive copywriter colleague Conner will treat you right. Their slogan might as well be called Trust Me.
Would you choose Sterling Cooper, the prototypical 1960’s ad agency with a charming, mysterious, and instinctive Creative Director -- Don Draper.
Who would you choose to do the photographs for print ads? Would it be Felix Unger, portraits a specialty?
Who would you choose to write a jingle? Would it be Charlie Harper, a womanizing, alcohol loving, Malibu beach house owning songwriter who also houses his brother, a chiropractor, and his brother’s son. Together, they comprise two and a half men.
Whichever agency, photographer, or jingle writer you select to promote your product or service, you have plenty of choices in the annals of television history.
Miles Drentell
April 15, 2009
by David Krell
david@davidkrell.com
Mad Men has received accolades for its portrayal of advertising executives at the dawn of the 1960’s.
Twenty years ago, we enjoyed another ad exec, one of the most compelling characters in network television -- Miles Drentell from thirtysomething, played by David Clennon.
After The Michael & Elliott Company folded, Miles Drentell brought the two yuppie ad men to his company, DAA.
Michael, the wordsmith,
Elliott, the artist.
With not too many options after their failed foray into entrepreneurship, Michael and Elliott take the job offered to them by the mercurial, talented, and sometimes devious Drentell, the D in DAA.
While enigmatic, Miles Drentell revealed some details now and then. He described his youthful self as someone who could see around corners where his business partners could not even see the corners.
When a friend’s son wanted to learn about advertising, Miles revealed a military stint when he told Michael and Elliott that he worked with the boy’s father and they shared a desk as well as a rather jaundiced view of the military. Michael later tells his wife Hope that he believes Miles was involved in the propaganda machine in Vietnam, helping to gain the hearts and minds of the enemy.
While seemingly devoid of emotion, Miles reveals his inner self to another mercurial character, Michael’s cousin Melissa.
Where Miles’ business decisions always seemed to have a logical basis, even if they were borderline unethical, Melissa’s life and love decisions had no basis.
Yearning for years in an on-off relationship with Michael’s commitment-phobe friend from college -- Gary.
Getting romantically involved with a 23-year-old man.
Miles asks for Melissa’s expert photographic opinion about some photos. She gives him a brutal critique, sensing the photographer’s emotional makeup through how the photos are taken.
She soon realizes that Miles is the photographer.
He is intrigued by her on-target assessment, perhaps even appreciative. Certainly curious that she could penetrate a wall seemingly invincible to others.
True opposites attract.
Not really. When Miles gets physically semi-aggressive, the scene ends before it goes too far, but the shock remains. Later, Miles reveals to Melissa that he’s been sad of late but she has made him less so.
Miles provided a perfect foil for Michael Steadman, the by-the-book nice guy who started to emulate Miles’ manipulative ways. In one story arc, Michael and Elliott attempted to engineer a takeover for Minnesota Brands, a Midwest conglomerate that wants to transform from being a DAA client to being a DAA owner.
Michael and Elliot’s strategy is to go to Miles’ two silent partners – the two A’s in DAA. After all, 2 out of 3 makes a majority.
Jack Ashley had no sense of reality – he wanted Michael and Elliot to take the roof off the building. Initially, they thought he meant figuratively removing the roof and letting the creative folks explore limitless boundaries.
He actually meant removing the roof.
The second partner was Carol Arthur, the widow of Miles’ second partner. Miles had Mrs. Arthur on his side because, as he later revealed, Mrs. Arthur spent her whole life trying to run away from her Midwestern Iowa roots. There was no way she was going to sell to Minnesota Brands.
Miles keeps Michael and Elliott on board at DAA. With a tip of the hat to Michael’s passion, Miles says that Michael’s already thinking about how he would run things differently, and who’s to say he won’t succeed the next time.
Clennon also appeared as Miles Drentell on Once and Again. No great mystery here…Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick created thirtysomething and Once and Again.
Miles Drentell died during the run of Once and Again.
Miles Drentell. The original Mad Man.
david@davidkrell.com
Mad Men has received accolades for its portrayal of advertising executives at the dawn of the 1960’s.
Twenty years ago, we enjoyed another ad exec, one of the most compelling characters in network television -- Miles Drentell from thirtysomething, played by David Clennon.
After The Michael & Elliott Company folded, Miles Drentell brought the two yuppie ad men to his company, DAA.
Michael, the wordsmith,
Elliott, the artist.
With not too many options after their failed foray into entrepreneurship, Michael and Elliott take the job offered to them by the mercurial, talented, and sometimes devious Drentell, the D in DAA.
While enigmatic, Miles Drentell revealed some details now and then. He described his youthful self as someone who could see around corners where his business partners could not even see the corners.
When a friend’s son wanted to learn about advertising, Miles revealed a military stint when he told Michael and Elliott that he worked with the boy’s father and they shared a desk as well as a rather jaundiced view of the military. Michael later tells his wife Hope that he believes Miles was involved in the propaganda machine in Vietnam, helping to gain the hearts and minds of the enemy.
While seemingly devoid of emotion, Miles reveals his inner self to another mercurial character, Michael’s cousin Melissa.
Where Miles’ business decisions always seemed to have a logical basis, even if they were borderline unethical, Melissa’s life and love decisions had no basis.
Yearning for years in an on-off relationship with Michael’s commitment-phobe friend from college -- Gary.
Getting romantically involved with a 23-year-old man.
Miles asks for Melissa’s expert photographic opinion about some photos. She gives him a brutal critique, sensing the photographer’s emotional makeup through how the photos are taken.
She soon realizes that Miles is the photographer.
He is intrigued by her on-target assessment, perhaps even appreciative. Certainly curious that she could penetrate a wall seemingly invincible to others.
True opposites attract.
Not really. When Miles gets physically semi-aggressive, the scene ends before it goes too far, but the shock remains. Later, Miles reveals to Melissa that he’s been sad of late but she has made him less so.
Miles provided a perfect foil for Michael Steadman, the by-the-book nice guy who started to emulate Miles’ manipulative ways. In one story arc, Michael and Elliott attempted to engineer a takeover for Minnesota Brands, a Midwest conglomerate that wants to transform from being a DAA client to being a DAA owner.
Michael and Elliot’s strategy is to go to Miles’ two silent partners – the two A’s in DAA. After all, 2 out of 3 makes a majority.
Jack Ashley had no sense of reality – he wanted Michael and Elliot to take the roof off the building. Initially, they thought he meant figuratively removing the roof and letting the creative folks explore limitless boundaries.
He actually meant removing the roof.
The second partner was Carol Arthur, the widow of Miles’ second partner. Miles had Mrs. Arthur on his side because, as he later revealed, Mrs. Arthur spent her whole life trying to run away from her Midwestern Iowa roots. There was no way she was going to sell to Minnesota Brands.
Miles keeps Michael and Elliott on board at DAA. With a tip of the hat to Michael’s passion, Miles says that Michael’s already thinking about how he would run things differently, and who’s to say he won’t succeed the next time.
Clennon also appeared as Miles Drentell on Once and Again. No great mystery here…Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick created thirtysomething and Once and Again.
Miles Drentell died during the run of Once and Again.
Miles Drentell. The original Mad Man.