I was introduced to a wonderful series on Foxtel during the Easter break.
Mad Men, set on New York’s Madison Avenue in the 1960s, focuses on the advertising men who built their businesses there.
It was a period piece set just over 40 years ago, when times were distinctly different, and it’s a reminder of how far we have come in just four decades.
And yet, not all that dates back to the early ’60s was actually phased out in that decade. Much of what today would be politically and socially incorrect, and in some cases illegal, was still happening in the ’70s and early ’80s.
So for a jaunt down memory lane for those readers who fit in the older 50 per cent of the population (according to recent census figures, that is those over 36.8 years of age) try and remember the time when smoking was completely acceptable in bars, restaurants, offices, cars, parties, taxis, the dinner table and in bed.
Cocktails and other spirits were de rigueur at lunches and in the office at the cocktail hour of around 5pm.
Long lunches stretched regularly from noon ’til night. Drinking and driving was not considered wrong and for many people finding their car was the first difficulty that drinking posed to their driving. No such thing as seatbelts was mentioned.
Remember the subsequent ads that came out against smoking, drink driving and in favour of wearing seatbelts?
They’ve taken at least 10 years to sink into the public consciousness and it’s hopeful that the financial literacy campaign may go the same way.
Imagine the time when we look back at these days thinking “Remember the days when people didn’t realise they needed a financial planner”.
