I know that I’m not the first person to gush about Mad Men, but I was given the first season on dvd for my birthday and the first episode impresses from alpha to omega. Not only is there great display of 50s gender politics, but the cultural production zeitgeist is in full swing as well. One of the best ad stories of the time–if not of all time–is glanced upon: the transformation of the ‘Nazi Car to Love Bug,’ or how a Jewish ad executive, William Bernbach, helped to re-industrialize Germany. (I used Thomas Frank’s book, The Conquest of Cool, in my culture class. It details this well, and with less smoking.)