'Mad Men' Gets Advertising Age Cameo All Wrong: 'We Didn't Ask Cute-Ass Questions,' Rance Crain Writes TVWeek, Ad Age

"Mad Men" has already come under fire from George Lois, a real-life advertising man from the 1960s, for misrepresenting the changes to the industry during the era.

And now Rance Crain, who serves as editor-in-chief of Advertising Age and whose family started the trade publication (as well as TelevisionWeek and TVWeek.com), takes aim at the advertising magazine's cameo in the fourth season debut of the AMC series.

"I felt George's pain in the opening scene of Sunday's episode, however," Crain writes, after advising Lois to lighten up. "Don Draper is at lunch with an Ad Age reporter, and our guy's first line is: 'Who is Don Draper?' Don doesn't know what to say, so he asks how other people responded to such a question. 'They say something cute,' our reporter says. 'One creative director said he was a lion tamer.' " The reporter then goes on to take notes in shorthand and informs Draper that his photo may be bigger than the story.

"What's wrong with this picture?," Crain continues. "No. 1, we never did interviews over lunch; No. 2, we didn't take notes in shorthand; No. 3, we didn't ask cute-ass questions; and No. 4, our pictures were never bigger than our stories. "

Crain goes on to write in detail about what it was really like to work for the trade magazine in 1964. For those wanting to read vivid slice of the characters who worked the phones and their sources during the era, it's a must-read.