Mad Men 6.7: Know When To Hold ‘Em, Know When To Fold ‘Em
And know when to get your private airplane out of the hanger and fly to a meeting like a boss.
Mad Men is in full swing (wink, 1960s joke). Each week we’ll take a look at who’s shilling what to who; follow our recaps here. Obviously, spoilers.
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MAD MEN CLIENT MEETING
6.7: ‘A Man With A Plan’
THE PRODUCT:
Fleishmann’s Margarine. The New York State Throughway. Competition. Power.
THE PITCH:
As everything this season gets a little more modern, Don’s been slipping further back to his pastoral past. In the world of product, there’s butter and margarine. No one prefers margarine. But if you’re marching your troops for miles and miles and worry that something’s going to spoil, a savvy leader turns towards the more responsible option. So how many miles has Don walked? Has he completely spoiled?
Don’s a power player, but all his plays are starting to look pretty similar – this cigarette, this car, this slide show, this sauce, this alternative sandwich spread: it’ll fill the hole in your heart you didn’t even know was there. He may be a tortured genius who occasionally makes masterpieces, but Mad Men seems to be slowly stripping away the magic… This ain’t oil painting, Picasso — it’s ads. We don’t need you to dig into your tortured past to find the mystery and majesty of raincoats. Just sell the stuff!
Ted understands that: show up to meetings, get something on paper, fly above the clouds and repeat. Maybe give a lady a chair. He may seem like a poor man’s replacement for Don, but he’s probably going to cause fewer heart attacks.
There’s being the boss…
…and there’s being the BOSS.
Don takes his affair to what appears to be his ultimate fantasy place – a woman stuck in a hotel room thinking only of him, waiting only for him. No wonder he’s shifted from debutantes and secretaries to bored housewives: I guess he thinks there’s less chance of them having any thoughts or agency or needs or wants beyond what he can be bothered throwing their way.
What’s nice about this? That amongst all of Don’s kink, Sylvia gets a little erotic holiday. What’s terrible? Those two loving spouses sitting at home. Will Mad Men ever really take someone to town for their infidelities? Pete got kicked out of home, but only because he was too obvious. Peggy can give out handjobs at the movies without any repercussions. Joan told her ex-husband she was fine with whatever dalliances occurred in Vietnam; she just didn’t want to hear about them.
Let’s see Megan really tear Don a new one. Let’s see Dr. Arnold weeping on the floor or taking a swing at Draper. Let’s have a little emotional fallout for once.
“Hello? This is room service. We just have a message for you from the viewers, saying they’re sorry your husband couldn’t transplant anything interesting into this storyline.”
TAGLINE:
“If I wait patiently by the river, the body of my enemy will float by.”
OLD BUSINESS:
Huh, turns out modernist furniture was just a power play all along.
Roger verbally tap dances over Burt Peterson’s career, with all the charming repartee of Gene Kelly and all the actual hurtiness of someone tap dancing on you. Sorry Burt, see you next merger.
Peggy Olsen is back in town, and she’s having none of your whatever it is. She bought a building, what have you done? Grow up!
NEW BUSINESS:
“Hi, I’m Bob. Haven’t seen me hanging around the edges of literally every scene? Weird. I was even under the bed in Don’s hotel room, and clinging to the wing of Ted’s plane like a gremlin. Anyway, if you have a cyst on your ovary, I’m your man!”
Bob! You don’t have to drink someone under the table or fly a plane to get ahead. Just be a mensch, and help someone to the doctor. Oh, and keep quiet about that brothel thing from last week… Now Bob’s got two partners in his pocket. He’s gonna own the joint by the end of the season.
Pete gets a wacky new housemate, and a new lease on life. Nope, actually it’s his mum, who’s sadly slipping into dementia. Mad Men has now officially entered the “old ladies who can’t quit their zingers” race, coming up alongside Downton’s Dame Maggie and Game of Thrones’ Dianna Rigg. To all the grandmas in real life: step up your quip game!
ON THE NEXT EPISODE OF MAD MEN:
Pete thinks something is in poor taste. Pete! Big pimpin’ Pete Campbell. I cannot believe what filth Don and Ted served up to Topaz in their latest stocking campaign.
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Matt Roden helps kids tell stories by day at the Sydney Story Factory, and by night assists adults in admitting to stupidity by co-running Confession Booth and TOD Talks. He also illustrates for Junkee; you can find more of his work here – and follow Mad Men with him here.