"In this campaign..."

AMC airs two shows about advertising. For comedic purposes I would normally say one of them is good. The other, not so much. And then reveal that the good show I'm talking about is The Pitch. Implying, by the use of irony, that the not-so-good show is Madmen.

See?
It's a twist.
A misdirect.
A bait and switch.

But, since a friend of mine is actually a paid consultant/producer/writer on Madmen, I can't really do that. Moreover, I haven't watched a single episode of Madmen since it started 6 years ago. So it wouldn't be fair to make it the butt of my joke.

Which brings us back to The Pitch.

For those who don't know, the premise is very simple. Two competing full service agencies (sometimes as small as three people) do battle for an advertising account or assignment.

In the hipster, pop culture bleeding edge circles that I travel in, it's quite fashionable to poo-poo The Pitch. But I generally run in the other direction than those sporting tattoo sleeves, or nose jewelry, or stingy brim fedora hats.

They claim the show is cringeworthy.
For me, it's bingeworthy.

I can't get enough of the amateur antics, the backbiting and the PDD, the Public Displays of Douchebaggery. If a man with a TV camera is pointing it at you why would you look directly into it and with a complete straight face say something like:

"I don't call myself a genius. But a lot of other people do. My mother and father always told me I was a genius. I guess maybe I am."

That's an actual quote.
And genius didn't win the account.

That is not to say the other agency's work was brilliant. It wasn't. To date, I've never seen anything on the show that even comes close to marginal. As a result, the client is often left to choosing between two piles of dogshit. One left by a Great Dane, the other by a Chihuauhua.

Not entirely unlike our current options with Syria.

The Pitch has enough schadenfreude for two shows.

But in a couple of weeks it will all get personal. Years ago, while entertaining the notion of starting up a business, I almost got into bed with one of the agencies that will be competing. I didn't pull the trigger but I remain friends with the partners and occasionally do some work for them.

I hope they come off well. But shudder to think I would have had to make an appearance on the Pitch. So I thank my lucky stars that it won't be me beaming into millions, okay, thousands, of living rooms.

After all, I have a face for radio.
And a voice for newspaper.