Our September suit preview stars the cast of Mad Men, the multiple Emmy nominated drama that returns for its second season on AMC this coming Sunday. Actor Rich Summer (left, with co-stars Bryan Batt and Aaron Staton), plays the bespectacled Harry Crane, a media buyer. He sat down to talk about infidelity, boozing at work and the best advertisement of all time.
PLAYBOY: Tell us about Harry.
SOMMER: He’s a media buyer for Sterling Cooper. He is married and had an affair with one of the secretaries at the end of last season. He told his wife about it, so I guess he’s a good guy. Or maybe he is just a bad guy who tells the truth. Regardless, he’s in the doghouse.
PLAYBOY: What can we expect from Harry this season?
SOMMER: The good news is he is still there. I was worried that Harry was going to kill himself or be forced to move back to Wisconsin with a wife who can’t take the New York lifestyle. But he’s back, and like everybody he is trying to hold on at Sterling Cooper. All the guys feel like their foothold is starting to slip a little.
PLAYBOY: What is the best part of the 1960s work environment?
SOMMER: Well the best part is also the worst part. There was, or this is how we depict it, a lot more freedom in the office to say what you felt like saying and do what you felt like doing. Nowadays there is a bit more decorum, not everywhere, but at least the places I’ve temped in. That liberty that they have at Sterling Cooper is both good and bad, because it allows you to live life a bit more, but it also led to obvious problems like heart attacks, alcoholism and death.
PLAYBOY: Any ad campaigns or commercials that you really enjoy?
SOMMER: We touched on this early in the first season, and I remember it from communication class in college, and I remember hearing about it before ever seeing it, is the Volkswagen Beetle ads. When the new Beetle came out they reprised the campaign with that simple little bug. That ad changed advertising. It was about selling but it wasn’t about selling points
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