Back in my impressionable youth I watched a lot of TV. A lot. I used to fake illness and spend the day at home watching TV. That's where I developed my passion for old movies, and movie musicals (Fred and Ginger to be specific). I did all my homework in front of the television (math was particularly easy to do with the boob tube on). I would memorize the TV Guide listings so my sisters only had to ask what was on and I would give them the complete line up for the evening. In addition to my love of old movies I developed of love of advertising. And back in the good old days of the late sixties and seventies they had lots of great jingles that I still carry around in my brain. Who can sing the jingle from Mystery Date board game -- "Open the door to your mystery date!" Love the internal rhyme, man!

Yeah, yeah, I've read the Ogilvy bible and I did hard time in Procter & Gamble's marketing division for advertisng deliquents. Even ran an advertising agency (ConnAd of course!) with my hubbie. Of course, it's no coincidence that my husband loves advertising and has devoted his career to it in some form or another. But it was watching every episode of Bewitched that really helped develop my truly deep understanding of the craft of advertising, and the hard, hard work involved.

About that the old joke -- for some reason advertising is generally viewed as morally despicable and dare I say, evil. Don't get me wrong: It drives me nuts with its pandering, inane, irrevelant and irritating messages. But on the othe hand I love advertising when it is great. And I love watching advertising executives and creatives portrayed on the screen and stage, as the industry is ususally given a sexy (and lovably silly) sheen in those movies and TV shows. (World Wide Widget anyone?)

So the Golden Age of Advertising (all those wonderfully goofy sexist campaigns!) was something I just had to include in Plane Crazy, especially since advertising has a spotty history in its portrayal of women. And it was an "ad woman", Mary Wells, who was the brains behind the Braniff Airlines sexy and Pucci-esque repositioning. But when I poke fun at the industry and the advertising execs it is done with love, comes from my experience, and hopefully rings true.

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