Shoot- The episode with no clients!

Kennedy starts airing a commercial in Spanish and the guys think that maybe if Kennedy gets a little more popular Nixon will want them.

Other than that the only pitching going on is from McCann to Don. Jim Hobart goes so far as to offer Betty a modeling job to try and woo Don.

I guess some could say that Don also pitches to Betty that she’s a good mother. She lies to him about the coke-cola work even though he already knows that they weren’t going to keep her on.

The day after Don keeps telling Betty how great she is and how no one is a better mother to her children than her and that she doesn't have to work. She seems to feel good for a while, but she barely makes it until lunch time without feeling restless. She makes breakfast, she does laundry and she shoots the neighbors birds.

In true white trash fashion with a cigarette falling out of her mouth and hot pink nail polish.

Red in the Face- Nixon

The Nixon people come and Roger throws up on them. How much worse could it have gone!

The agency has been vying for Nixon’s attention since episode 2(ladies room). They are chasing him even though Roger put it oh so eloquently that “why chase a girl who doesn’t want to get caught?”

Instead of this episode being all about the client it is all about Don feeling superior to Roger. Roger is inappropriate with Betty and Don feels the need to show him that he is nothing.

Don arranges with the elevator operator to have it be “out of service” when they get back from their Roger Sterling diet lunch. Don feels the need to make Roger feel like an old man. Roger isn’t getting any younger but he doesn’t need to act like a little kid. Roger is running around like a kid on the playground taking everyone else’s toys.

Babylon- Belle Jolie

The pitch to Belle Jolie might not have happened in this episode but Peggy and the other secretaries laid down the framework for what would become a great pitch.

The creators of Belle Jolie have so many options for woman that they even have a color called Ethel Rosenberg Pink(where it to the chair). This makes me think of The Bell Jar, the very first page is about them. “It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenberg’s, and I didn’t know what I was going in New York.” It’s a bit of a stretch going from Mad Men to The Bell Bar but they both are taking place around the same time and in the same place.

So back to Mad Men! The research provided to try and help with the campaign is as follows “Lipstick was invented to simulate the flush on a woman’s face after you’ve treated her right.” So what are the copy writers supposed to do with that? This would only help if they were trying to sell lipstick to men (maybe it did work and that’s where cross dressers come from!)

Freddy doesn’t speak moron (apparently being a woman makes you a moron in 1960) so him and Ken decide to “throw it to the chickens”, aka the secretaries.

All the secretaries make their way into a room with one way glass during their lunch break and are told to “grab a lipstick and a mirror and be your pretty little selves.”

The men are fascinated with what Peggy is doing, or more accurately what she’s not doing. Freddy approaches her later on. She didn’t get the color she liked, someone took her color, she’s very particular (as opposed to the other girls), Peggy doesn’t think anyone wants to be one of 100 colors in a box.

The way Peggy stood out to Freddy “was like watching a dog play the piano.”

Babylon- Olympic Cruise Lines

Olympic wants Israel to be a destination spot, like Paris or Rome. Don of course is prepared, Paris has the Effiel tower, Rome has the Colosseum. Olympic is charting their most luxurious liner along the ports of the Israeli Riviera, but all that will mean nothing if they continue to blow up hotels.

Olympic wants to be perceived as luxury and glamour, which is why they came to Sterling Cooper, but as Don pointed out, they are viewed by the public as dangerous. What Don should have pointed out is that no one wants to take a luxurious cruise along the Berlin Wall of through Auschwitz.

Olympic cruise lines are working with Israel to promote tourism to Israel which will in turn drive sales for Olympic. These people view Sterling Cooper as a glamorous agency; they don’t let them down when they provide caviar bilinis and mai-tais for the meeting.

America has a love affair with Israel and Olympic wants to bring the two parties together. Sal suggests they use an average family of 4, parting of the red sea with a 5 star hotel waiting on the other side. But Don and Olympic want to keep religion out of it.

Exodus will begin filming soon with Paul Newman. So they want to play up that.

Don needs inspiration, so he meets with ‘his favorite Jew’, even Rachel Menken wants to see this movie now that she knows Paul Newman will be in it. She finds it strange that he’s treating her like an expert in Israel, “I’m American and not very Jewish” she says proud yet timidly.

Jews have lived in exile for a long time, first in Babylon, and then all over the world, Shanghai, Brooklyn, we’ve managed to make a go of it.  Maybe it has something to do with the fact that we thrive at doing business with people who hate us.

I’ll visit, but I won’t live there, for me it’s more of an idea than a place.

DING DING DING Mr. Draper “utopia” the good place, and the place that cannot be.

Of course this is a double meaning for the relationship that they both want as well as about Israel.

 

Your favorite....

Episode of Mad Men-
Child-
Client-
Mistress of Don-

My favorite episode is a question that I can't even answer. If there was a gun to my head(Couples Retreat style) I would choose the season finale of season 2 and 3(I'm sorry I can't pick just one!). Betty finding out shes pregnant, Peggy admitting she was pregant to Pete, Sterling Cooper being sold, and Don finnally coming back from California really just made a fantastic episode. But at the same time, the finale of season 3 when  that song("Shahdaroba" - Roy Orbison) is playing as Don is walking into his new life and new apartment- I almost want to cry at how good that scene was.

My favorite child of the show is Sally Draper. When she has her own story lines they are great and when she's just there she's great! In season 2 when she was watching Don shave and all she said was "I won't talk so you don't get cut", that line made the episode! Who cares about Bobbie Barret, Don may have told her not to talk but it's not until Sally says that line that what he said to Bobbie really makes sense to me. He just wants all his women to shut up! But little Sally is going to make it known that she plans on shutting up before she actually does it.

My favorite client is Topaz pantyhose. Peggy took the inicitive to not only get them signed as a client but she also did the creative work. I think that I like them the best because they were open to a woman signing them on and to her doing the creative. I like open minded people.

My Favorite mistress of Don's was Rachel Menken. They had a lot in common and I think they complimented each other well. They are both such hard working individuals that I think they really could have made a real relationship work, especially since they would both be so busy working, by the time they see each other it would be like a treat!

So people out there reading, tell me your favorites! If I get enough answers I'm going to make some charts!