Deb and I are each home with our special and unique versions of the flu. She’s sicker than me, but I’m on my way down.
So we throw it out to you.
Any thoughts on these opening credits? We’ve never talked about it. We’ve discussed the possibility of Don being suicidal, and here’s this falling body.
G’head. Discuss.
Basket of Kisses 
February 26, 2008 at 11:04 am
One of the comments my boyfriend made about the opening credits was that it reminded him of the people jumping from the Towers on 9/11. I don’t know if that has to do with anything but I’ll throw it out there.
Personally, I adore good credit sequences. The credit sequence for Mad Men is not just a man falling but all of these beautiful images projected unto buildings; ie, imagery projected unto gleaming surfaces. It seems to be a visual metaphor for movies and mirrors. It’s certainly a fresher take on the theme. And as a whole, the show is a commentary on the American dream which was partly created by advertising, no? At least the way we think of it now: beautiful spouse, two children, a house in the suburbs, a terrific career, lots of money, etc. These ideas about happiness and fulfillment have proved oppressive in my life so to me the entire show is about how these people try to shoehorn happiness into this mold they culture’s handed them. Don SHOULD be happy with picture-perfect Betty but he feels most at home with Rachel, the outsider Jewish business lady. And so forth with each character, each one shoulding him/herself into these traps. So the glossy images projected unto buildings and the man falling: maybe it’s all about this one man’s downfall and being in thrall to those images? I don’t know.
February 26, 2008 at 11:25 am
I agree with Eme Kah’s boyfriend. I, too, immediately thought of the people jumping from the twin towers. I was actually kind of surprised that the creators of the show went with (and were allowed (by AMC?) to go with that image.
That said, the image is a very haunting one. On the surface, it clearly seems to suggest suicide.
Falling is certainly an image of a state of instability–literally “ungrounded”.
I like the way it evokes some of the credit sequences of Saul Bass–well-known designer of the era…
In the meantime–hope you feel better soon!
February 26, 2008 at 12:38 pm
Cool thoughts. It hadn’t evoked the 9/11 imagery for me. I like Eme Kah’s thing about being in the thrall of the images.
I’m sure there are a lot of interpretations and associations. But regardless, I think we agree it is one slick sequence.
And Scott, thanks. I’m dosing on Emergen-C and Echinachea and Goldenseal.
Deb is way beyond all that at this point, I believe. Please note we have not heard from her.
February 26, 2008 at 1:45 pm
Hi, I’m here. I’m kind of on my way up. This is the worst winter of sick since I quit smoking in 1999. I went from ‘Huh, that might be a cough’ to CAN’T MOVE too fast to do anything much about it. Except, y’know, whine.
I don’t think the image is suggestive of suicide. I mean, yeah, suggestive, but that’s not what it says to me. To me it always says falling, ungrounded as Scott says, drowning in the American Dream. Drowning in the advertising. Helpless and unhinged.
February 26, 2008 at 1:49 pm
Here is something else from left field: it reminds me of the Tower card in the Tarot, which is supposed to mean a fall from grace. Oh! I just remembered that there’s another Tarot card at the very end of the show: The Sun, the icon for Weiner’s production company.
February 26, 2008 at 1:51 pm
Oh, and I hope you feel better, Deb.
February 26, 2008 at 2:07 pm
Hmm. Looking a little further into the Tarot card theme (and I can only guess that Weiner must know something about it or he wouldn’t have used a Tarot card signifying success as his logo), here are some pertinent meanings associated with the Tower:
“The Tower is struck by lightning when Reality does not conform to expectation.”
“The querent may be holding on to false ideas or pretenses; a new approach to thinking about the problem is needed. The querent is advised to think outside the box. The querent is warned that truth may not oblige schema. It may be time for the querent to re-examine belief structures, ideologies, and paradigms they hold to. The card may also point toward seeking education or higher knowledge.”
In one of the Weiner interviews, I seem to remember him saying that he could picture Don at Esalen some time in the future. Anyway…
February 26, 2008 at 2:17 pm
Great observations, Eme. I’m a Tarot reader, I think this fits.
February 26, 2008 at 2:45 pm
Thanks, Deb. It’s cool that you read Tarot. I read a bit but I have a hard time interpreting the Tower.
February 26, 2008 at 3:52 pm
The Tower can also be interpreted as an identity that no longer works for you. Both internal and external forces can be a catalyst for breaking out of that identity. The querent is not the image he/she has developed for his/herself, but a living breathing human being growing beyond the limits of the identity. Although it is a moment of destruction, the tower must come down in order for the living emerging human being to evolve.
Roberta brought up the association of Don with the falling businessman and our ongoing question about suicide. As much as I think Don was not considering actual suicide at the train, I remember that Adam Whitman commits suicide and families in which suicide occurs are at greater risk for another suicide in the family. So dissassociating Don from suicide is counterintuitive and besides, as it’s been said before, a nexus of meanings and motives apply with these characters–thankfully.
I think that in some frames the businessman looks like Don and in others he looks more like Pete. Plus, there is a red piece of artwork hanging in the office before it all falls down that is exactly the same artwork hanging in Pete’s office. Check out when Pete first brings the chip-and-dip in to the office to return it.
I don’t know what to say about Pete and suicide or falling, though. I associate entrapment or suffocation with Pete.
February 26, 2008 at 4:27 pm
“The Tower can also be interpreted as an identity that no longer works for you. ”
Ooh, I love this, Max. I often have a hard time interpreting the Tower. It scares me. Of course, it fits Don well.
In a way, he HAS committed suicide. He killed the person Dick Whitman was and, on some level, the shame his family instilled in him due to his illegitimacy must still haunt him.
I associate Pete with manipulation but he is trapped in his marriage as well, in a way. I never get the sense that he’s happy with Trudy.
Anyway, fun discussions.
February 26, 2008 at 4:51 pm
Pete manipulates and is manipulated–Trudy is far more skillful at getting what she wants through manipulation than he is. Pete is a rank amateur compared to her!
I have been writing a lot about Pete lately and I’ve got this long-ass piece to submit to this blog. I hope people don’t mind.
February 26, 2008 at 5:45 pm
“Trudy is far more skillful at getting what she wants through manipulation than he is. Pete is a rank amateur compared to her!”
True that!!! The apartment, baby-making … Trudy is One 2 Watch in 2008 …
February 26, 2008 at 5:49 pm
Though she is more of a human being than Pete is. She has some depth and compassion.
Pete has layers, but they seem to fall into two categories; wounded and wounding. (Or just one category: Gimme.)
February 26, 2008 at 6:04 pm
First book on Tarot I read (Eden Gray, still a fave) used a Biblical quote (I think) about the Tower: Unless the Lord build a house, he troubleth in vain who builds it. In other words, if you construct a pack of lies or of sin or of wrongness, it will come tumbling down.
I find that very useful in readings. Everything is falling apart—because it was never meant to be put together this way in the first place.
Roberta: Love the “gimme.”
February 26, 2008 at 7:02 pm
Wow, fascinating insights. I’ve been away from this site for way too long. Looks like I’ve missed some really interesting discussions…
But anyhoo, since we’re on the subject of suicide here’s a bit of trivia for you. We know that the series takes place in New York and Ossining, although it’s actually filmed in and around Los Angeles (the Draper home is right around the corner from my house in Pasadena–woo hoo).
The underpass where Don watches the train is also in Pasadena right under a bridge that is locally–colloquially–known as Suicide Bridge. You can read about it at http://www.legendsofamerica.com/ca-suicidebridge.html. Scroll down to the second picture, and you can see where Don was parked during that scene. The railcrossing was actually a CGI effect that was added in post-production.
February 26, 2008 at 7:13 pm
Wow, fascinating insights. I’ve been away from this site far too long. Looks like I’ve missed some excellent discussions.
While we’re on the subject of suicides, here’s a bit of trivia for you. The underpass where Don watches the train was filmed in Pasadena, California, beneath a bridge that locally, colloquially, is known as “Suicide Bridge.” You can read more about it at http://www.legendsofamerica.com/ca-suicidebridge.html. If you scroll down the page to the second photo, you can see where Don parked his car. The railroad crossing is not actually part of the area as it was added after the fact with CGI or some such effect in post-production.
February 26, 2008 at 7:21 pm
Ooops. Okay, for some reason that link didn’t work. Sorry. But if you want to know more just do a Google search on Suicide Bridge, Pasadena California.
February 26, 2008 at 10:17 pm
Pete has a kind of minor evolution going on and it’s not as much as he needs, not just to come clean, but to even make a success of himself. He’s breaking out of his class background a bit. Sure, he’s benefited from and will still use the family name, but it’s also an albatross around his neck, and also something that keeps people from seeing his creative expression. The family definitely hates that he has this job, but other than “the Law” what else would they be content with him doing? Family business only? What kind of work is his brother, Bud, doing, if Bud is old enough to work? We don’t know; we only hear that he is running over girls in Montauk.
It would be funny to think of Pete as the more successful son that the parents don’t appreciate for class reasons.
And how happy are the upper crusty parents with his marriage to Trudy? Mom goes on with how nice she thinks Trudy is on a superficial level, but Dad says nothing. Trudy’s family are like the prosperous, jovial, upper middle class folks for whom marriage into Pete’s family name is another step up.
Other things show that Pete is chafing against his upper crusty background. After the Don and the guys watch the clip of Jackie K. speaking Spanish, Pete makes a remark about her finishing school voice–“You can’t listen to that and govern all day.” He’s clearly over the finishing school girls.
He’s still informed by his unexamined class prejudices and his baby steps out of the silver-spoon box are not enough to contend with all his other issues or the evil he commits just to feel or be more powerful. But it’s interesting to see that Pete yearns not just to have more or control more but to be more.
I love the Bible quote: I have always also interpreted that to mean that, if you don’t listen to the voice of God, that “still small voice inside” of you, but are distracted by everything around you or the wrong goals, you will be building in vain.
February 26, 2008 at 10:19 pm
Hullaballoo, I fixed your link. You were using “UBB” code; the markup language typically found on message boards. Blogs don’t use UBB, they use real HTML.
February 26, 2008 at 10:23 pm
Loo, we’ve missed you.
I found your first comment in our spam catcher, (no idea why) and it has different nuances from when you recreated it, so I’m leaving both intact. Hope you don’t mind.
February 26, 2008 at 11:25 pm
I can’t understand Pete’s fascination with destroying Don. Is it because, on the surface, Don has everything he wants…blonde wife, sultry brunette mistresses, cushy job, height, great hair, good bone structure? What is his obsession with Don Draper?
Back on topic….When I saw the opening credits, I knew that Mad Men would be a kick-ass show! I was sucked in by the businessman in freefall, drowning in whiskey and women, and then landing on the sofa, chillin’ with a ciggie. Perfect!
February 27, 2008 at 9:54 am
Kay, I don’t think Pete gives a shit about Don one way or the other. He’s just in the way.
Maybe Pete resents that Don is likable. Pete wants to be likeable. But Pete just wants to suck out Don’s mojo. Like in cannibalism cultures, how you acquire your enemy’s courage by eating his heart. Pete wants to eat Don’s heart (ew).
February 27, 2008 at 9:59 am
Here’s another thought I had on the credits: They remind me of Vertigo, a movie about a man obsessed on recreating his perfect woman (who was herself a creation and, hence, an illusion).
As to Pete: Max, I agree with you that he is the successful son. As weaselly as Peter is, there’s no denying that he has his own good traits. He could’ve tried to coast on his family name. He could’ve jumped at Trudy’s suggestion that her family pay for their apartment. His pride is wounded. Peter has taken a lot of blows to his ego and like a lot of children with famous names, he probably feels like he’s under the shadow of his family.
But still, as much as he stooped down to actually working at an advertising firm, he can’t get away from the ingrained sense of entitlement of his class. I think that’s why he’s obsessed with Don. In fact, at first I don’t think he was so much obsessed with Don as obsessed with being promoted as fast as possible to a position of power (which he regards as his birthright). He is also adamant in getting recognition as a creative person. Those two factors would’ve shown up in devious behavior regardless of who his boss was. NOW he’s obsessed with Don because he knows that Don comes from a much lower social class. So that rankles him even more. You know, How DARE this hick be above me? While Don thinks: How DARE this upstart who’s never worked for anything in his life think he deserves more?
February 27, 2008 at 10:04 am
Deb: thanks for that quote on the Tower. It makes it a lot clearer and a lot less scary.
February 27, 2008 at 3:48 pm
I have so much to write about Pete, it’s insane. For the time being, look at all the attention that Don gets in his position. Every time he comes up with a great idea or campaign that saves an account, all the guys march into his office–oh, Don, you’re a genuis, mein commandant, you’re a savior. And every time, even though he hates Don getting all the attention, he sucks up to him the hardest of them all. So he feels he’s entitled, but he’s jealous, and he engages in acts of appeasement. Another motivation of his for wanting power is so that he, someday, when he is on top, he will not have to appease anyone–people will have to suck up to him. That’s his DickCheneyesque notion of freedom.
Look at these little phrases: before he blackmails Don, he says, “I feel strange having to talk to you in this way.” Yeah, I’ll bet it feels strange; he’s still young and there’s still a little bit of conscience in there. And before he tells Don about the Clearasil account he sponged off his father-in-law, he says, “I’m not ashamed to say . . . ” but he’s dying of shame! He doesn’t like doing it, he still feels bad about doing, he’s going to do it anyway.
I have finally tied suicide in with Pete, just by writing this: There’s a kind of soul suicide going on with Pete, and when he has finally killed all the glimmering embers of integrity and deceny in his breast, then he will be Dick Cheney.
You guys are the best!
February 27, 2008 at 4:49 pm
Pete reviles me to no end! And it’s all due to Vincent K’s fabulous acting skills. He makes me want to break Pete’s legs…all THREE of them! (Ha!!) When Pete wanted to pimp out Trudy, simply so his lame story could be published, it was gross. The horrific way he treated Peggy, particularly when her copy was a success, made me want to punch him.
February 27, 2008 at 6:16 pm
Wow, there are a lot of comments about the opening credits, but from what I skimmed through all I saw were twin towers, tarots, and Pete…but if my thoughts have been spoken about before I apologize.
First of all, I LOVE the intro. Even without trying to interpret it, it looks amazing and sets the tone and mood for the show.
That being said, I see the intro as a representation of what happened to Don from his first day on the job until the first episode.
Shadow Don walks into the office puts his briefcase down (this is his first day), then the office falls apart and swallows him into the “World of Advertising” (this is quite literal since the buildings are made up of Ads). If you notice the ads are moving towards Don, representing his indulgence of the Dream Life he’s envisioned, the Drink, the Woman’s Leg, the Perfect Family, these are the components of the perfect life Don has always dreamed of. But now Shadow Don is heading towards the blank ground. He has everything he thought he wanted, but now he wonders “what’s next?” and so we zoom out, ending with a Shadow Don that’s posed almost exactly like Don in the pilot, representing that this is where Don is at now.
Ok, so that’s my take on it, let me know what you think!
February 27, 2008 at 6:55 pm
Scott wrote:I like the way it evokes some of the credit sequences of Saul Bass–well-known designer of the era
Eme Kah wrote:Here’s another thought I had on the credits: They remind me of Vertigo, a movie about a man obsessed on recreating his perfect woman (who was herself a creation and, hence, an illusion).
*nods* Not only Vertigo, but they also remind me of another Saul Bass opening, North By Northwest.
Vertigo credits:
North By Northwest credits: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1OgdFPHtC8
I could point out that North By Northwest is about a Mad Man who ends up having to pretend he’s someone else. But I think the reference, if that’s what it is, is more about the image of the time. As Matt Weiner would say, the show isn’t about Cary Grant movies, but about the people who watched Cary Grant movies. I’m sure that all the Cooper Sterling men match their suits and ties each morning in a conscious effort to look like Cary Grant. Roger Sterling probably looks in the mirror and sees Cary Grant. He has that kind of confidence.
February 27, 2008 at 8:07 pm
Okay, first of all can I just say that if awards were given for blog commenters, you guys would probably not win (I mean let’s be serious, we aren’t big enough yet), but totally should?!?
Shlomo, welcome, and cool whole other take on it. It totally fits.
And Mel, thanks for the tubes. I had thought of Vertigo when I first saw the credits, but putting it together with NxNW really gives a fuller picture of the Saul Bass style. I never knew who he was, but based on this, and without the use of IMDb, I took a shot and looked at the tube for Man With the Golden Arm, and sho ’nuff. Also Anatomy of a Murder. I most definitely think that the Mad Men credits were lifting that vibe.
February 27, 2008 at 10:45 pm
Didn’t read all the comments yet, so I might be copying someone else, but I always think that the falling man is what is going on inside Don Draper. We see the falling man land on a couch with a glass in his hand, which I see as the exterior life of Don Draper.
I *love* the credit music. Love it, love it, love it.
February 28, 2008 at 10:10 am
Excellent catch on North by Northwest. Cary Grant plays an ad man (yes!) who is mistaken for someone who doesn’t even exist–the CIA created him to trap the bad guys. And no one is what he/or she seems in this flick either.
February 28, 2008 at 10:16 am
Absolutely. The YouTube of NxNW credits can’t help but remind even a casual viewer of Mad Men. Impressive.
February 28, 2008 at 12:01 pm
If a show’s really good, its credits are a distillation of what the show’s really about, yet still clever (see: Sopranos, Drew Carey Show, All in the Family).
MM is right up there … IMO, the show’s about post WWII America’s inflection point, slowing as it reaches an apex. In 1960 much growth in affluence is yet to come, however many signs of downfall are evident as we watch these characters go through their lives. Public heath concerns, social attitudes, etc. chief among them.
So the credits – top executive in freefall as signs of affluence/media/advertising rush past – to me, tell that story in composite. HItchockian references make it all the more juicy and clever.
February 28, 2008 at 12:38 pm
BTW – as regards Pete, he’s a one-man graduate psych course, isn’t he??
He’s interesting to me because he’s usually on the right historical side of most of his business and societal arguments. Technically, he know’s his shit across the board. However his complete lack of social ability undermines whatever he has to offer.
The looks and snide remarks from his superiors during meetings, etc. are totally priceless.
I would bet that subsequent seasons will show Pete growing and reconciling these two sides, and his social grace will meet up with his inate skill.
Don’t take from this that I think he’s a nice guy – he’s a total clod. But he’s also young and doesn’t know how to relate to the world, which is very relatable and human. His parents also didn’t do him any favors in this area, if their scene in New Amsterdam is any indication. Amazing how much information can be culled from that conversation.
Eventually, he may grow to lead S-C.
February 28, 2008 at 2:32 pm
I am sure we will see Pete change, but I suspect there will be only small glimpses of redemption for Pete, nothing that really chips away at the core of who he is.
And the only thing I can think of that would do that is empathy. Pete needs to do something hurtful to someone he actually cares about, and somehow internalize the experience.
I will never forget Peggy so pointedly and poignantly saying (these ain’t precise quotes) I don’t know if you will be kind, or if you will be cruel, and moments later his saying, in reference to their couch tryst, That’s quite an imagination you’ve got. Dick.
Someday he’ll get it, however briefly, and it will humble him, however temporarily.
February 28, 2008 at 3:23 pm
I think it was a brilliant bit of casting to have the actor who plays Pete to be a guy who has this sort of baby face and very young-sounding voice, and not classic matinee idol-ish good looks and a sexy voice (like Don Draper YUM). Pete has so much maturing ahead of him; it will be interesting to see if he has a case of arrested development or not as the series progresses.
February 28, 2008 at 4:50 pm
Agree that there is scant evidence in S1, however his prescience as a budding ad man indicates there’s something to him. At least for me. Again, this is not to conceal that he’s a first class doofus.
Interesting to compare with Don, who’s got all the charm and social grace in the world, and yet he’s on the wrong side of many issues (his rejection of technology will DEFINITELY bite him in the ass before we’re through). He’s got the surface look of a champ, but he’s a dinosaur in the ad world. He’s rising to the top as the net’s being taken away down below.
February 28, 2008 at 5:03 pm
Pete’s ability to think forward is the one redeeming quality he has. And if a more ‘polished” character were to bring up the ideas, it may not be so easy to dismiss them. To me, Pete’s total lack of social graces is why no-one takes him seriously in the meetings. He blurted things out at the wrong time, so nobody would take the little brat seriously!
February 28, 2008 at 7:37 pm
Thanks for the welcome Roberta!
I just have one question about this very interesting Pete/Don discussion. You mention that Don has a distaste for technology, and I’m just curious where you get that from? I happen to love tech (I’m studying to be an electrical engineer) and never noticed any distaste from Don.
And before you mention the TV and Phone in Midges apartment, i don’t think that was a distaste of technology, but more of keeping her apartment a “fortress of solitude” for himself (sorry, i just saw Confessions of a Superhero, so i’ve got Superman on the brain.)
February 28, 2008 at 9:46 pm
I generally lump Don’s rejection of research with his distaste for technology – any forward-looking tool that was not yet en vogue in the marketing industry in the early 1960s.
Evidence:
– Right Guard campaign … Don eschews the space-age approach for “Any Excuse to Get Closer”
– throws research in the trash regarding smoking/Lucky Strike – gets pissed at Pete for using it – which he does in a awkward way … again, Pete’s forward-thinking, Don’s backward-looking
– Kodak pitch … Don’s whole premise was that the projector was not a futuristic technological advancement, but a “time machine”. A brilliant pitch, no question. But part of a trend established throughout the season.
February 28, 2008 at 10:53 pm
Ok, first of all, i rewatched the opening credits and noticed something else that backs my explanation. When Shadow Don is falling past the picture of the blond wife and family, on the building next to it is a lone picture of a brunettes face, this is Midge.
Now in response to our more recent discussion, I hear what your saying dansj30, but I still don’t think of it as distaste. The younger execs think by flashing a big “FUTURE” label on it, any product will sell, but I think Don likes to look further into it and boil it down to what psychologically will make the viewer buy the product.
Right Guard – I think if any of us were given this product at that time to do an ad for, we all would come up with some space campaign. I think Don just saw it as lame and realized that the ad has to give women what they want (as the other execs look at him like hes an alien)
Lucky Strike – That research was just horrible, and as Don clearly says “The issue here isn’t why should people smoke, its why smoke lucky strike”
Kodak – I think the reason Don made the carousel pitch is because, like the Kodak people said, if you try to mention the tech people just think of the wheel as the most basic and original technology, not futuristic.
To conclude, I’m not saying I disagree with you, im just saying that Don had more of a reason to not use the Tech angle than just a fear of Tech. I’m sure he, like most people his age in this era, have a sort of fear towards tech, but i think Don would be the first to adapt when he is forced to.
(P.S. I wish i had a time machine so i could go back to 1960…sigh)
February 29, 2008 at 12:48 am
It’s interesting that those three examples did work out for Don, so either side can be argued.
I wanted to do some searching before responding, but there were definitely other moments when Don bristled and rejected ideas of the future that were good ideas, where Pete was the voice of the future, falling on deaf ears, were it not for us, the 21st century audience. The whiny, mean, prepubescent voice of the future.
Just a few that jump to mind… Don hated the Volkswagen ads. Pete recognized that Kennedy is a rock star. We all know where each one falls when it comes to favoring research.
Matt Weiner said that the Marlboro Man campaign, which launched in the early 1960s in response to the Reader’s Digest article linking cigarettes to cancer, is the ‘death wish’ campaign. Marlboro Country and all that. Marlboro wound up as the #1 ‘youth-initiation’ brand. The brand of Pete’s, not Don’s, generation.
February 29, 2008 at 8:43 am
Look, Pete’s gonna run that office one day, perverse as that sounds now …
Don refers to technology as a “glittering lure”, and then uses the old “a need is an itch, and simply insert your product as a kind of calomine lotion”, which was old and hackneyed in 1960.
And I would suggest that the research wasn’t horrible, but right on. Freud or no Freud, cigarette ads ultimately all had to resort to lifestyle pitches, such as Marlboro Country, Joe Camel.
Remember when Pete says that Elvis doesn’t wear a hat, and then the next scene is Don walking into his house … in a hat?!?! These are not mistakes.
Wait till the Beatles arrive in S3 and it will be even more stark.
Don’s a dinosaur with his back to the comet about to enter the atmosphere.
Damn great show …
February 29, 2008 at 10:28 am
Don has anxiety about the future. The future is threatening. Space means nukes.
I don’t think he’s anti-tech. I think he’d be happy with a gadget. But he’s anxious about research because he’s anxious about psychology because hello? secrets!
February 29, 2008 at 11:23 am
Of course he loves gadgets. He has one of those exercise flex thingies lol!
Seriously, it cracks me up seeing him use that with a ciggie balanced between his lips…..
February 29, 2008 at 5:11 pm
I think that Dan has a point about Pete and his prescience. I don’t think he’ll be running Sterling Cooper, though. Management skills and success are not just a matter of talent (and I did think that Peter’s “backbone of America” idea was better than Don’s “we built New York”, although, essentially, they’re similar.)
Here’s something else I forgot: Cooper has clearly hired Pete bc of his name. In fact, he even mentions to Don that they can’t fire him (when Peter pitches the above campaign) bc of his family name and the connections Peter has.
Hey, Deb: Excellent point about the future being filled with anxiety for Don. It hadn’t even occurred to me but this was shortly after the age of nuclear shelters. The Cuban Missile Crisis looms on the horizon in 1962. I wonder if that will be addressed in the first episode of Season 2. It wouldn’t surprise me.
March 1, 2008 at 11:14 am
A lot of the pleasure of the show is the concept of hindsight being 20/20. Of course Pete is right, but he’s also slightly ahead of the curve. We see his take as inevitable because the TV is *our * time machine and we’re visitors from the future.
Opening credits. I also see it a little as “Ignore the man behind the curtain.” The guy who makes the pretty image is free falling, but aren’t the images swell?
The theme for Nip/Tuck could also play over the images and make a certain sense. Illusion trumping reality. The perfect lie.
March 1, 2008 at 12:02 pm
GD, welcome and thanks for the contribution. There’s no doubt that the 20/20 hindsight is a strong draw for the series. Pete is only slightly ahead of the curve. In other words, his ideas are not anachronistic. His assertions are falling on (Don’s, mostly) deaf ears, but the ones that get through are successful. And the ones that don’t… the Marlboro campaign is a perfect example of an idea whose time has come.
Don, and all others who ignore Pete, are not wrong to do so… he is such a backhanded weasel; rarely are his ideas presented in an appropriate manner, be it timing or style.
The other interesting thing about this dynamic is that, while Pete could have been pitching Marlboro Country, Don did come up with a winning campaign for Lucky Strike. Don hasn’t seemingly made any bad choices, just not the most forward.
Or, maybe he is, but it’s a little ambiguous. For example, what did happen with Dr. Scholl’s? Based on what Pete said, we can’t tell if it really was a matter of Don heading up bad creative and not responding to the client’s needs, or if Pete just made it sound that way to trump Don.
I work in advertising. You can’t hit every time, and sometimes clients just get pissy and decide they hate their agency of record. Or don’t feel like paying for them anymore.
But Don, despite his terror when no ideas are coming, can be just as pompous and unyielding as Pete. He certainly was in his first meeting with Menken’s. And he almost blew it with Bethlehem Steel.
So we’ll see how this plays out next season.
March 1, 2008 at 9:46 pm
Right on, RL … I’ve never posited that the rest of the office are blind because they cannot see Pete’s genius.
Only that our “visitor from the future” perspective shows that he’s generally on to something when he pushes an idea. Pete’s never been able to put his thoughts in nice wrapping, and that’s as important a skill as one can have in business.
One of the great thrills of the show is that Weiner & Co. give us the audience credit for seeing more than what’s on the screen.
March 2, 2008 at 1:13 am
The most important element of the research for the Lucky Strike Campaign is that Pete stole it from Don’s office wastebasket: “It’s not like there’s a magic machine that makes copies of things,” says Don–a sidelong reference to Xerox machines, since they belong in our modern world, full of wonder and ease. Who was it that said everything that happens in “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes” foreshadows what happens in the rest of the series? So Pete’s propensity for theft and spying on Don are established.
“The Backbone of America” was such a great idea and definitely what the client wanted–Don clearly could not get out of a New York frame of mind. But Pete presents this idea without any prep to Don or Sal and they are the ones who have to make the presentation. Did he think his idea wouldn’t be listened to and tried an end run around Don with the client?–that surely did not improve his conditions for being listened to, even if it could only be in a future place and time–a clear indication of Pete’s young impulsiveness, competition with Don, and impaired ability to foresee the future consequences of his actions.
Don likes to “fire clients”, as Roger tells us in “Shoot”. “There’s that ego that people pay to see,” Midge says to him as he comes up with the “Any Reason To Get Closer” Right Guard campaign. It will be interesting to see if in S2, Don’s ego sells less and gets him into trouble more. I have to say that, upon repeat viewing, Don’s little verbal potshots at Pete sort of got me down, regardless of what I think about Pete’s character. They just seem so petty and mean-spirited and, like Peggy, I often want to see the more heroic aspects of Don.
It’s Roger who shoots Pete down both for his appreciaton of the Volkswagen “Lemon” campaign and for the Kennedy=Elvis observation. He’s the real dinosaur in the tarpits–will we see Roger’s character back in S2? Don still has an acute sense of the psychological need for a product that I think will stand the test of time, if he is open to the changes we 21st cent. folk know are coming. As young and closer to the plus as Pete is, rigidity in thinking, prejudices formed by his class background, and his own ego could just as easily become major stumbling blocks. We shall see. Season 2 can’t come quickly enough.
March 6, 2008 at 9:31 am
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January 27, 2009 at 12:47 pm
Hullaballoo- I grew up in Pasadena and I have been racking my brain as to what street the Draper’s house is on, can you help refresh my memory? I don’t think it had a red front door like the show portrays, but I know I have seen that house before.
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July 30, 2012 at 8:02 am
Great share …