Ad Man

Ad Man centers on the rise and fall of Jeff Hanford, a Classified Manager who, because of personal sexual hang-ups and sometimes injudicious, sometimes cruel, sometimes idealistic business attitudes falls victim to his own inner drives.

The story is told from the point of view of three persons who closely observed him and whose lives are changed by Jeff Hanford's bizarre managerial behavior: Al Carmine, Jeff's loyal friend and outside sales manager; Sally Wells, Jeff's secretary and victimized lover; Dana Randolph, Sally's close friend and perceptive natural leader among the telephone advertising saleswomen.

Ad Man is set in the Classified Advertising department of a daily newspaper, which has traditionally been low paying, female oriented, and neglected as its least glamorous section. The story takes place in the 1960's, prior to computerization, at a time of enlarging advertising revenues, and emerging feminist consciousness in the Classified section of the Daily Huntington in Southern California.