It’s interesting because Peggy thinks of her relationship with Megan as her being the guide and helping her move forward professionally, but it’s becoming clear that it’s Megan who will have an impact on Peggy. The previous episode where she was so excited about Megan landing Heinz and she said “This is as good as this job gets” and the look on Megan’s face I think is setting the seeds in Peggy’s mind to make her own changes. The road her life is on, writing copy for beans, still not being respect by male clients, and setting for shacking up is just sad.
Tom & Lorenzo blog about fashion & good TV. Every week they post a very good recap of Mad Men, followed by Mad Style–an absolutely first rate analysis of fashion & decor in each episode. In analyzing “Mystery Date” they pointed out how often Joan has appeared in dresses with roses–which reflected the stages of her relationship with Greg.
Then, there are the roses she was carrying when Greg raped her. And, weren’t there roses in the vase she smashed over his head?
This episode’s dress definitely suited her. But Tom & Lorenzo said the print reminded them of dead roses…
It says a lot about the zeitgeist of the era that he has no problem getting a girl into bed once–and it says more about him that he has no luck getting her there twice.
I’d never read that blog before- its great! Thanks for linking!
And we know he’s into the right kind of music for Woodstock because he mentioned “the Spoonful album” to Sally over the phone when she called him at his dorm. The most famous version of Spoonful appears on Cream’s 1966 debut Fresh Cream. Cream didn’t play at Woodstock themselves, but their fans would certainly have appreciated the bands that did.
I also loved the fact that Sally’s “boyfriend” wanted to talk about the album itself while she was quite content to hear it played on the radio. Women are far less prone to obsessing about their record collections, after all.
I took Lady Lazarus to be Megan, awakening at last from the living death of a job she cannot respect. The same awakening may herald the beginning of the end for her and Don.
Given the unrealistic nature of the elevator shaft scene - Don not troubling to warn anyone, no-one else even mentioning it, an earlier poster’s assurance that the doors simply wouldn’t open in that way - I think we have to assume it happened only in Don’s head.
Megan has just reminded him how old he is in comparison with her, and thus how out of touch he’s started to feel with the coming generation. Suddenly, he’s gazing into a metaphorical elevator shaft of his own coming irrelevance and lurking death.
That was my interpretation anyway. It’s hard to believe that a show which is careful to get so many other tiny details precisely right would allow the elevator’s unlikely behaviour to slip through for any other reason.
Oh, and one other thing I loved:
In the scene where Peggy’s screaming at Don, it struck me that she’s committing exactly the same sin she accuses him of - even as that accusation’s in progress. She tells Don he’s only shouting at her (Peggy) because he’s really mad at Megan. But that’s who Peggy’s really mad at too, and Don just happens to be a handy target for her own wrath.
I’m pretty sure he was talking about The Lovin’ Spoonful. (My first rock concert was The Spoonful & Chad & Jeremy opening for The Beachboys at the Houston Music Hall.) Peter Stampfel wrote liner notes for their first LP–John Sebastian had come out of the Village folkie scene, playing harp on at least one album by the legendary Fred Neil. I recognized Stampfel’s name when I saw The Holy Modal Rounders first release–cracked old timey that included the first recorded use of the word “psychedelic.”
So, if Sally goes to Woodstock? Then she goes home. So what?
I’m sure you’re right about it being The Lovin’ Spoonful rather than a Cream reference, although for some reason that thought never occurred to me at the time. Please ignore my earlier blatherings.
I knew the clothes they wear on Mad Men aren’t just picked at random! I’m off to read Tom and Lorenzo!
Spoonful did not appear on the LP version of Fresh Cream - it was replaced by I Feel Free which became an unexpected pseudo-hit. It was on a Best of Album, and reappeared on the CD version. And I agree it was Lovn’ Spoonful which was meant.
Let me blather about this. I loved the reference to the Beatles being hard to get, since it mirrored the producers difficulty in getting rights. Besides the cluelessness about the music, did anyone else notice how clueless they are about the status of rock musicians in general? Did they seriously think they in this dinky agency were going to connect with first the Stones and now the Beatles?
But Megan pointing Don to that track doesn’t ring true. It seems to me to be an anachronism like “it is what it is.” The song is important in the track of Beatles music that runs from it (and perhaps Norwegian Wood) to “For the Benefit of Mr. Kite” to “I am a Walrus” and ending with “Revolution No. 9.” At the time it was way out there. There are plenty of nice Paul songs which would be better introductions, and Taxman and Eleanor Rigby were distinct breaks from what was usual in albums at the time, and a lot more accessible. Unless Megan shared some of that acid with Roger, I don’t see her being a fan of the song.
For the show, it is a great song to illustrate the movement into the psychedelic age, which advertisers started copying very soon. But I didn’t see it as true to the characters.
I’ve begun to take a liking to Megan. Most of the characters underestimate her, stereotyping her as the secretary who married the rich boss. But there is more there. I’m sure Don was convinced she was having an affair. But she confessed to here lie before it totally blew up in her face. And she had the guts to declare her independence, walking away from her safe job even as she was beginning to succeed in it (maybe because.) Betty was the old style woman, Megan is a new style woman, and Don’t growth is seen by him accepting it - so far.
Betty returned to modeling also (lower prestige than acting) but it was as a pawn in a war for Don. Megan is doing it on her own.
I wonder if she will hit it big and start bringing in more money than Don. It would be interesting to see how he reacts to that situation.
I think that Don is deeply in love with that Meagan and it’s because of her depth and talent. She broke away and struck it off on her own just like he did. Contrast that to Betty who is as shallow as can be.
Agree that “Tomorrow Never Knows” was totally for today’s viewers. Of course Don lifted the needle halfway through. It would have sounded like unholy noise to him. While Ginsburg didn’t like it, the choice of an old standard - one played by The Beatles at their failed Decca audition - was a thousand percent closer to what advertisers really wanted to hear in 1966.
I disagree that advertisers were going to start copying psychedelia soon, i.e. soon after 1966. Especially not music. Advertisers used generic background rock whenever they wanted to sound hip. The only psychedelic music in advertising I’m familiar with are the two Levi’s commercials that the Jefferson Airplane did in 1968. They supposedly ran nationally, but I never knew they existed until decades later.
The Cool Whip “just taste it” ad is much more realistic. It reminds me of the Stove Top stuffing instead of potatoes ads that were a huge success. Those came a full decade later, so this is revolutionary advertising technique. Wrong revolution, though. No “sixties” breakthroughs look modern except the ones we associate today with the “sixties.” Weiner seems willing to risk anachronism for effect, and I can’t really argue against that choice. But it’s a fine line. He can’t push it too hard or he loses the verisimilitude.
I have a question for those around at this time. Was it common for advertisers to blatantly rip off movies? They first did it with that Bye Bye Birdie ad and now with this Hard Day’s Night ad. Usually today if someone references a movie, it’s usually either a parody or a tie-in. SCDP seems to go “Here’s a great scene, let’s copy it.”
I was thinking more of art. I agree that something like “Tomorrow Never Knows” was way too far out there for advertisers. And by psychedelic art I mean bright colors and patterns like what eventually be used in Yellow Submarine. All this for national campaigns, of course. Small local ones for youth products would be edgier, but these couldn’t afford the music rights.
Actually I don’t remember a lot of songs used behind commercials back then. There would be music for jingles, and this music would be influenced by what is popular, but as Don said, the decision makers then didn’t get the importance of music and the benefit of using familiar songs behind commercials.
Today of course admen are so into it they are immune to the irony, and use “Won’t Get Fooled Again” and “Mercedes-Benz” in commercials.
I have a DVD set of commercials from the '50s and '60s, and I don’t remember any. The closest thing is Stan Freberg’s parodying the Lark commercial in his Jenos Pizza Roll commercial.
Mad did movie parodies. Sid Caesar did movie parodies. Production values in commercials were not what they are today.
Here’s a couple of pages of actual 1966 magazine ads from the Old Magazine Ads blog. They look just like… ads. The clothing is a bit more stylish than you would have seen in 1960, when the series started, but only one or two really say “sixties.” More of them are in color - the 60s are the big breakthrough for color printing. Several celebrities are featured, but that could just be selection bias on the part of the blogger. No campaigns would spark any memories and there are few earworm-style slogans. Just arresting pictures and a headline. There are some design and typefont changes that would fascinate experts when compared to the 80s ads on the current front page but most casual viewers would say that they’re essentially identical.
It’s beans all the way the way down.
Those 1960s magazine ads seem to have a lot more text than I see in current-day print ads.
They did. You may enjoy reading some of what Ogilvy had to say about good advertising - he loved the kind that you saw all the time then with a big tagline and then paragraphs of text.