Don Draper heads Most Influential Men list

Askmen.com in the US has named fictional Mad Men character Don Draper as #1 on their 2009 Top 49 Most Influential Men list. 

NominatingDraper, Askmen.com says: Don Draper may be a fictional character onAMC’s Mad Men, but he’s just as real as any other public personalityyou can think of. Celebrities are brands, with carefully constructedimages, and most of us are just as likely to have a beer with DonDraper as with anybody else on this list. What matters is that Draper’shardass 1960s persona represents something about male identity that isenduringly captivating but has nonetheless vanished. 

The man that Don Draper is — value-driven and thoroughlymasculine — is the product of a bygone era; without him, there wouldbe no contemporary figure to represent it. Yet, as removed as hispersona may be, it is also contemporary and familiar. He’s a postwararchetype, both a brilliant career man and a temptation-swayedphilanderer who sincerely wants to be a family man. Like most men, usand our fathers both, Draper is permanently conflicted over how toreconcile his morals and his desires.

Draperillustrates old-school values even though he often fails to meet themhimself. His human flaws are what make him so relevant to men today. Heis by turns a chain-smoking, drinking-in-the-office emblem of a bygoneage, and an unusually real, earnest human being who illustrates thestruggles modern men know all too well.