AMC announced last week that its hit show Mad Men would return for a fifth season, pleasing its ardent fan base of 3.2 million viewers. For those of us in advertising, the show is more than just a TV hit. It provides a glimpse into the industry’s history and offers our loved ones a helpful explanation of what we do. If Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce had project managers, explaining my job to my parents would be so much easier.

I graduated from BU in May and, before joining CTP in June, my knowledge of advertising was limited to classroom anecdotes from my professors and an eclectic combination of internships and coffee-runs. And then there was Don Draper who, consciously or not, defined my perception of the advertising industry. When Mad Men first premiered, I was a freshman, and as each new season started, I watched with a different perspective and a little more criticism.

I grew to understand that employees of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce had very little respect for their colleagues and almost none for their clients. Consequently in the “real world,” I expected to find account teams with huge egos, undermining each other at every turn, and creative directors kicking clients out of their offices for calling their work too risqué. Advertising seemed, for lack of a better word, easy.

What I’ve realized is that advertising is actually hard. Not in the way a classroom assignment takes all night to complete, or an internship boss takes six months to impress – but in a way that success is synonymous with a team effort. People rely on you, and you’re constantly surrounded by people who are invested equally in your success as in their own. In order to succeed, mutual respect is needed.

I wish someone had pointed out the obvious: that Don Draper and Pete Campbell fictitiously reside in the past. Today, the advertising agency is dependent on all departments working seamlessly together; it has evolved and expanded. Account and creative aren’t the only departments. Planning is no longer looked down upon as experimental. Media buys go beyond TV and print. Everyone relies on each other. And as much as I keep suggesting it, no one has time to sit around all day drinking scotch.