I never really have inserted my toe into the deep well that is the ongoing debate over Mad Men’s so-called *black problem*. I suppose, as I shared in a past post, like the conversation over a similar *black problem* on HBO’s Girls, I really haven’t been able to muster up enough energy to care, likely in large part because I haven’t watched either show with any consistency. Not that I haven’t tried (I did watch the entire first season of Mad Men, and a few episodes of Girls. But that’s it in both cases). I’m just not a fanatic. Although I also feel that my time and resources are better spent working to affect change where I feel genuine change is possible, instead of on band-aid solutions, like, as we saw in Girls, inserting what feel like token black characters in reaction to public outcry.

All that said, I do appreciate this filmmaker’s approach to the debate: instead of talking about what’s *wrong* with Mad Men, he’s decided to produce a web series that satirizes the award-winning drama, titled Mad Black Men, which, as he states, takes a look at the 1960’s ad industry from the eyes of three black ad workers.

Xavier Ruffin is his name, and he actually works in the ad business as a graphic designer, and so likely has more insight into the industry than most of us, which should inform the film.

In his own words:

My name is Xavier Ruffin and I am a filmmaker, a writer, and a designer. I developed the idea for Mad Black Men as a 3 minute sketch for a comedy show 2 years ago and some how it’s snowballed into an entire web series. Now what I need is a little help to make sure the aesthetics of our pilot episode are authentic early 1960s and up to par with its AMC counter part, Mad Men. Mad Black Men is a show about 3 black creatives and their struggles in an overwhelmingly white and racially insensitive advertising business while balancing their own lives, set in the 1960s. The idea came to mind after all my design colleagues fell in love with Mad Men, but I couldn’t get into it. I was torn. The designer side of me loved the glamorization of my own profession. However, the black guy side of me couldn’t get past the way African Americans were portrayed in the show and their lack of representation in the office… I want to push the idea of minorities in advertising passed the tokenized and trivial roles depicted in the first 5 seasons of Mad Men.

Xavier has set up an Indiegogo campaign to raise $3,000 to shoot the pilot episode of the his series, so if you’d like to contribute to it, click HERE to do so.

Watch his pitch below for more on the project. And underneath, you’ll find a sample of his past work – a music video he directed for rapper Proph.