Monday, November 22, 2010

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.”

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