The first few episodes of Mad Men are a little more advertising-oriented, with a focus on a specific product and campaign each week. This focus on the work helps to establish the relationships and pecking order among the mad men, and also gives us some background on office dynamics circa 1960.
Also, it's very entertaining. I was disappointed when this product-of-the-week gimmick vanished after a month or two.
I took these notes during the 7/20 marathon. I wasn't taping it or anything, and I was doing things around the house, scribbling the notes as I went, sometimes squeezing things into margins or in between lines - so there's a good chance that some the stuff within a recap is out of order. My notes were also very rough, so I wasn't able to report every cute line, funny detail, etc.
I STRONGLY recommend that you buy, rent, or borrow the Season One DVDs if you missed an episode. Some of these episodes weren't as fun to watch a second time, but I found every single one spellbinding the first time through!
Advertising executive Don Draper hangs out alone in a bar, brooding over a cigarette advertising campaign. He questions the bartender, a black man, about his brand loyalty and his reasons for smoking. The bartender's boss wants to scold the bartender for being lazy, but Don tells him it's okay. The bartender moves along, miffed.
Draper spends the night on his sofa at the office.
Morning. It's Peggy Olson's first day at the advertising agency. The men, her future coworkers, are already making crude remarks about her as they ride up on the elevator, even though she turns out to be one of the frumpiest "girls" in the office.
Joan, the snotty head of the secretarial pool, takes Peggy under her wing, giving her painfully condescending but valid advice about her appearance, behavior, and job duties.
Peggy is meeting with her new boss, Don Draper - our main mad man - when Pete Campbell, a young account executive, comes in to suck up to Don. Pete is well educated and ambitious, but obviously a neophyte in the business world, and naive about interoffice politics.
Pete is obsequious with Don whenever the two of them are alone, constantly flattering him and trying to impress him; but Don seems not only immune to Pete's solicitous attitude, but hostile. He doesn't always do a good job of hiding his contempt, but Pete keeps trying.
Anyway, Pete comes in and talks to Peggy as if she were a hired stripper. Finally Don kicks him out.
The mad men are worried about a recent court ruling that they can no longer make health claims of any kind in cigarette ads. They meet with a researcher who provides them with a big fat report full of facts and figures about smoking and risk. Don scorns the scholarly research and dry facts; he throws the report in the trash. In their meeting, the guys agree upon and develop the idea that the world is dangerous and you're going to die anyway. Why not tap into that death wish?
Next client: Menkin's Department Store needs a campaign to revitalize their business. The madmen are at a loss because the Menkins are Jewish, and they don't know anything about Jews.
For their meeting with they invite their only Jewish employee, a guy from the mailroom, and pretend he's a team member. This probably would have worked, if Don had met the guy first. Instead, he assumes that the guy from the mailroom is the client and tries to shake his hand. He also tries to shake hands with another man, and assumes that the woman in the room is his secretary.
He's wrong. The man is the assistant, and the woman is Rachel Menkin, who has taken over running the store for her father. She's the client.
The meeting is a disaster. Whether they realize it or not, the madmen are offensive and rude and antisemitic. Finally Don makes a rude remark about having to answer to a woman, or something, and she leaves in a huff.
Good goin', you oaf!
It's lunch time. Don goes to see his artist girlfriend, Midge, in her ultra-cliche beatnik (post-beatnik? pre-hippie?) loft. Aside from the usual nooner activities, he grills her about why she likes to smoke.
Peggy spends her lunch hour at the doctor's appointment. Joan has advised her to go on the Pill as soon as possible, and has hooked her up with this doctor who'll prescribe it. (And who Joan's slept with.) He gives Peggy a quick pelvic examination, all the while making sexist remarks that would earn him a kick in the face or a bad report to the medical board in this century. He tells Peggy he'll prescribe the pills, but he puts a power trip on her - if she abuses the privilege he'll take it away! He prescribes her Enovid for $11/month but neglects to inform her of how it works or how long it takes for the stuff to star working.
Enovid was the first commercially available birth control pill. It was tested in Puerto Rico in 1956. In 1957, the FDA allowed it to be prescribed in the US for "severe menstrual irregularities." The manufacturer included a "warning" on the packaging that Enovid would prevent ovulation.
Of course, there was really no secret as to why so many women were suddenly complaining about their "female problems," but it would have been virtually impossible to market the product otherwise. Birth control products were illegal in some states.
The dosage of this pill was four times higher than what later turned out to be perfectly adequate for contraception; higher doses greatly increase the risk of deadly blood clots.
Enovid was finally FDA approved for birth control on May 11, 1960. It was sold in a bottle.
The first episode of Mad Men takes place in 1960; however, the Mother's Day episode is still a few weeks away. Therefore, it's likely that Enovid was still officially for "female problems" only; Peggy's doctor would have been writing a so-called "off-label" prescription - prescribing a drug for some purpose other than what the FDA had approved. This is very common and not illegal, but it must have given doctors a lot more power over their young unmarried patients.
Anyway. If you want to know more about this stuff, look here.
After the doctor visit, Joan introduces Peggy to the switchboard ladies and tells her to be extra-nice to them because they know everything.
The mad men gather for another cigarette meeting. A man named Salvatore (one of the art department guys) says something about leading a double life. (Bookmark that mentally, please.) A high-ranking Lucky Strike executive doesn't like the "death wish" strategy; Pete then tries to pitch an idea based on the research that Don had earlier spurned. The client doesn't like this either.
Don points out that no advertising based on health benefits means that there's also no competition based on the relative health risks/merits of their products. In a way, it is a boon - it levels the playing field.
He gets the client to describe how their cigarettes are made. The client impatiently describes their process, which is just the same as everyone else's: they cut the tobacco, dry it, toast it, and...
"It's toasted," Don says. They'll base their campaign on that. Sure, everyone else toasts their tobacco too; but Lucky Strike will be the first to brag about it. No one else will be able to talk about their toasted tobacco without looking like a foolish copycat. The client likes the idea. Don has saved the day!
Later, Don confronts Pete, knowing that he stole the tobacco risk report from the trash.
There is talk about helping Nixon's presidential campaign, even though Nixon seems to be doing well on his own and isn't looking for an ad agency.
It's dinner time.
Don meets with Rachel at a restaurant to apologize. She says she's not married because she's not in love. Don says he doesn't believe in love. (He neglects to mention that he's married.)
Rachel doesn't offer him any special favors, but she does agree to give the agency another chance to create a campaign for her store.
At Pete's bachelor party - oh, did I mention, Pete's getting married this weekend? All the other guys from the office are there. They have some "dates," who appear to be employees or "independent contractors" of the gentlemen's club where they're having the party. Pete gets pushy with the girls and they complain.
(At some point during this episode, Don or some other person lectures Pete on how nobody likes him, or something like that. When a hired bimbo can't pretend to like you, that's a bad sign.)
After the bachelor party, Pete goes to Peggy's place. He's a little bit drunk. He announces to Peggy that he's getting married. Peggy lets him in and... and... guess what.
I don't know why. I've heard of people having weird chemistry, but this is ridiculous.
It's now 57 minutes into the episode. Don finally goes home to his wife and kids in the suburbs.
Quote of the hour: "Let's take it a little slow - I don't want to wake up pregnant." (Don)
Advertising lesson of the week: "The point of advertising is to say, 'you're okay.'"
No comments:
Post a Comment