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OK, I admit it. I am totally obsessed with AMC's recent hit Mad Men, a drama series about the advertising industry on Madison Avenue in the early 1960s.

Mad Men focuses on the intra-offices politics of a fictitious independent advertising agency, and is loaded with excessive smoking and drinking, blatant sexism against the female office workers, and a stunning wardrobe of handmade suits and dresses that will make even the Birkenstock-wearers among us swoon.

And oh yeah, sometimes they pitch ad concepts to clients, too.

What's really interesting to me is that Mad Men instigates some real discussions on agency/client relationships, and I foresee college professors using this show as a discussion starter in their classes in no time.

In a recent episode, Sterling Cooper, the fictitious agency on which the show is centered, approaches American Airlines just hours after one of its plane crashes and everyone on board killed, aiming to get new business out of a company that will inevitably soon seek to rebuild its image.

Beyond Sterling Cooper's insensitivity in attempting to build their account portfolio out of a tragedy, there was another huge problem: Sterling Cooper already had an airline client.

In the end, Sterling Cooper decides to dump their current client in favor of the larger American Airlines account.

Clients pay us not only for our work, but our loyalty. Our job is to be on their side, whether it be brainstorming a brilliant new marketing campaign, developing messaging at the drop of a dime in the face of crises, or turning down a competing client approaching us for their business.

And if you dump your client in favor of a larger account because you need the money, what does that say about YOU to your NEW client? They should be equally worried about being dumped when an even larger competitor starts knocking at your door.

Disloyalty to clients is bad business. And what Sterling Cooper did, seeking an account after so many people had died, was nothing but tasteless.

Have you ever faced a conflict of interest? How did you handle it?