There is only one word to describe the “falling man” billboards for the season premiere of “Mad Men” posted around lower Manhattan: inexcusable. Actually there’s a few more: unconscionable, insensitive, dumb, misguided, irresponsible, reckless, careless, hurtful, offensive and despicable.
One of the billboards stands tall on top of a building at 7th Avenue and 30th Street. The canvas is essentially blank save for a man in a suit falling head first through the air. The positioning of this billboard gives the appearance of a man falling from a nearby building from the top floors.
Millions of us will never forget the photos of people jumping from the burning towers on Sept. 11. Many of us in town that day watched in disbelief as it happened. A man and a woman holding hands, ties and skirts flapping in the wind, helpless, innocent people doing the unimaginable, their only escape from the jet-fueled inferno. But in particular there is one image, a photo of a man dressed in a suit falling, head first past the soaring tower that is seared in our minds and came to depict the shock of that day. There are many words to describe this “falling man”: horror, desperation, disbelief, senseless, unimaginable, innocence, family, death.
I can see the creators of these ads sniggering now. Gathering in offices to celebrate. Clinking their glasses together in celebration. Their plan had worked. The ads placed in lower Manhattan and near Ground Zero had delivered a wealth of press for the show.
The ad creators and the network, AMC, got their wish. My only wish is that people will boycott the show and shut it down.
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