TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY MAD MEN

Pure Creative, the hottest new ad agency in New York City, has set its sights on rap superstar Markus in hopes of cinching one of the most profitable collaborations ever: turning his viral music video depicting acts of generosity in poor communities into an ad campaign for its most lucrative client.

Account lead Ella begins to crumble under work stress and past traumas, mishandling the make-or-break client. Her boss Link sees the campaign as his shot at doing good, even as he wrestles with imposter syndrome. And just as production ramps up, Markus' unseemly private life threatens to ignite a PR firestorm around Pure’s idealized image.

In this Swiftian, often comical narrative, author Christopher Stoddard satirizes the ad industry’s most insidious ploy today: branded content that promotes progressive social values for the unadulterated goal of pure profit. Buckle up for a hilarious, unsettling look at the hollow virtue signaling behind modern marketing.

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  • “Stoddard's THE VIRTUOUS ONES is a razor-sharp insider's look at today's world of young professionals in L.A. advertising and their transgressive lifestyles. It reminds me of reading the literary Brat Pack novels of the 1980s for the first time, and of watching Mad Men—a dark but often humorous satire that makes for a fast-paced read.” —Lisa Howorth, Author of Summerlings, a Novel

    “Christopher Stoddard’s THE VIRTUOUS ONES contrasts trendy kindness and sudden, unspeakable cruelty dressed in Prada. Gradually, the disparate cords of this narrative tighten, recalling Didion and Ellis with their offhanded, blunt descriptions, on-point brand inventions, and such breathtaking one-liners as: “The Chanel guillotine is right over there. She could just end things, but she isn’t confident the artist Tom Sachs built it to be functional.” In an extended and sordid climactic sequence, Stoddard takes us into a night voyage through the entertainment industry and seedy subterranean Hollywood, transforming the proverbial Walk of Shame into an epic reckoning of one character’s sensual yet deluded young life.... ” —Michael Carroll, Author of Stella Maris: And Other Key West Stories

    “The Virtuous Ones, Christopher Stoddard’s new novel, is a compact literary gem. His clarity of vision, his gift for language, the vivid details and descriptions he provides, animate every page and make for a fluid reading.” —Tsipi Keller, National Endowment for the Arts Winner & Author of Waves & Tonics

    Praise for the Author’s Work:

    "Stoddard has created an addictive and intoxicating environment for his readers… A depressingly beautiful portrait of the metropolitan human." —Kirkus on At Night Only

    "Stylish, despairing, enviable..." —Edmund White on At Night Only

    "Though dubbed a tragedy on the jacket, At Night Only looks unrelentingly for a way out of fake love, fake relationships, and fake identities." —The Paris Review on At Night Only

  • CHRISTOPHER STODDARD is the author of three other novels: At Night Only (ITNA, 2018), Limiters (ITNA, 2014), and White, Christian (Spuyten Duyvil, 2010). His most recent book, At Night Only, was praised by PEN award-winning author Edmund White, and was a staff pick in The Paris Review. For more than a decade, he worked at various ad agencies in New York City. He lives in Los Angeles.