Mad Men Why It's Smart: Its depiction of the cut-throat brutality of 1960s Madison Avenue educates us on the sins of our fathers. Its probing scripts use key historical events (for example, JFK vs. Nixon and the Bay of Pigs) to anchor discussions about honesty, temptation and patriotism. How Smart Is It? While the world of Sterling Cooper is at heart an old boys' club, producers had the wherewithal to flesh out the show's popular female characters in Season 2.