- Eleftheria Parpis

LAS VEGAS Matthew Weiner, the Emmy Award-winning creator and executive producer of AMC's critically acclaimed drama Mad Men, received a standing ovation as he accepted an honorary CLIO Award at the 50th anniversary CLIO Awards last night.
 
The opening night's festivities, at The New Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, had a 1960s theme to suit the Mad Men salute. The room displayed newsreels of swinging London fashions, 1969 moonwalk footage and vintage ads from VW and others.
 
"What can we say about Mad Men? Has there ever been such a buzz, inspiring fashions, department store windows, a new line of Zippo lighters, not to say nothing of the critical raves, Golden Globes, Emmys?" said Keith Reinhard, chairman emeritus of DDB Worldwide, who introduced Weiner.
 
He confirmed the show's depiction of those days in advertising, described by The New York Times as "smoking, drinking, writing and womanizing," with a story about how he met his wife as she was fleeing an "inebriated account director who was chasing her down the hall. How lucky was I?" he said. "Mad Men has captured the essence of the 1960s ad world and given us a fantastic look at what it was like."
 
"I'm thrilled to be here," Weiner said in accepting the award. "I grew up loving advertising as a form of entertainment and I still enjoy it. I think about the fact that for some reason or another it is so close as an artist to the process of the mixture of business and art and wit. And I admire very much what you do. Now ironically I get to feel like I am part of the history of advertising, so thank you very much for this award. It means a lot to me."
 
Receiving honorary CLIOs today: Barry Manilow (whose songwriting canon includes commercial jingles from the 1970s) and Internet entrepreneur and investor Mark Cuban.
 
Dan Wieden of Wieden + Kennedy is being feted with a Lifetime Achievement Award.
 
The CLIOs are produced by Nielsen Business Media, part of the Nielsen Co., as is Adweek.



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