Mad Men 6.10: It Was The Best Of Times, It Was The Blurst Of Times. Mainly The Blurst.

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

6.10: ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ 

THE PRODUCT:

Carnation Milk and Dairy. Manischewitz wine. Protest. Flux. 

THE PITCH:

“Why don’t you gentlemen tell us how it’s possible to devote your energies to our delicious and nutritious instant breakfast and Life Cereal at the same time.” Is it possible? Maybe the man from Carnation has a point. This season’s seen a shift for the agency, from the big, broad-stroke brands of the past to the dreary domestic dross that we barely notice anymore — it’s not Bacardi and Belle Jolie, it’s margarine and powdered milk. The ad men are dealing with the nitty gritty of consumer culture, yet Mad Men seems to want to bust out of its cubicle walls and mix it up with real deal events; big, historical, emotional messes keep interfering with the nine-to-five.

1968 saw the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bobby Kennedy, and this episode covers the ‘police riots’ outside the Chicago Democratic National Convention, where 17 minutes of live national prime-time TV cut between the political stump speeches and the tear-gassed student protests in the streets. The most awake we’ve seen Don this year was when he got to pitch to Chevy. How can Sterling, Cooper, Draper, Chaough, et al balance quick-shakes and Life? How can Don shuffle between each week’s micro-dramas and the big picture happenings outside? How can the show make us care about the next campaign, when every frame is buzzing with the real revolutions of the era?

Don and Roger head to L.A., and Ted ducks down to Detroit. So while the cats are away, the mice straight up aim to hatchet each other, with creative Ginsberg and money man Cutler riffing on the roles that must have played out in hundreds of households. With a Vietnam peace plan scuttled, who’s got time for snappy slogans? Oh, that’s right, your boss. When does compassion outweigh commerce? Are you a hippy hypocrite for cashing cheques from Dow chemical? Would Cutler like a dime on that sweet body-bag action, or is the media share on dead soldiers still pretty low?

Ginsberg spins out, proclaiming himself a thug and a pig. Underdog and outsider from birth, Michael can’t sit happy writing copy for The Man when just last night The Man beat down thousands in the streets. Luckily, Bob Benson’s at hand (having just spun his fave ‘From Failure To Success’ business record), and regurgitates pep at the putzing creative until Ginzo’s cool enough to function again. So Bob Benson’s big secret is that he’s a bland wannabe baller, taking get-ahead tips from some mid century Anthony Robbins? Boring. After telling Stan that he loves him, Ginsberg asks Bob if he’s a homo, which is either reflection or projection, or the beginning of something beautiful. We’ll see.

Meanwhile out west, the hashish is free and Harry Crane can wear a chartreuse linen sports blazer if he damn well feels like it. Roger throws shade at these sunny-faced folk, not knowing that two hours in California turns Don into a flower child every time. While the long-haired fools back home are picketing in the park, this brand of love child is just sitting around getting stoned.

The way the suits blab about ‘the youth’ in this episode is as all-encompassing as the way Time magazine talks about millennials, as if there weren’t chasms of difference between David Karp and Amanda Bynes. It used to be the fine details of a striped tie that separated the copy kids from the account execs in the office, but the next gen now hits every end of the spectrum. Stan’s not like Danny, Ginsberg’s not like Abe; the one thing that connects them is that they seem to have their eyes open to something larger. Don’s still squinting through the smoke to find out what it is.

Don takes a bad trip to the bottom of the pool, and his hallucinatory experience stops us from seeing Roger dive into the deep end to save him — and straight after the silver fox got punched in the nuts by Danny the munchkin, too. Play hard, Roger! Sterling’s shrink says you have to know yourself, and it seems like Don is still stuck between death and a hopeless place. If anyone could do with a little peace, love and understanding, it’s Don. Is he ever going to switch on to what’s in the air? Or is he stuck being slick, being glib, being himself? Is there a balance to be found? There’s booze and tacos outside, after all. That sounds great!

THE TAGLINE

“We don’t know whether to go groovier or nostalgic. We’re somewhere in the middle right now.”

OLD BUSINESS

Joan and Peggy take the second meta-meeting of the week, as Avon attempts to straddle the line between a nostalgic past and a groovy future. Joan’s intra-corporate skullduggery seems minimal in this modern age, but with Pete still smarting from his loss of Vicks, you can see why he’d be hungry to chomp Joan out of her cosmetics cut. Peggy and Joan lean in, lean out, shake it all about, and hokey-pokey their way to a truce. 

NEW BUSINESS

And what if you wanted everything to stay the way it was? Well, maybe you’d just say ‘Fuck it!’ and let your freak flag fly. See you in the hash den soon, Petey-boy!

ON THE NEXT EPISODE OF MAD MEN

Don pours a drink, Peggy rapidly unlocks a door, Pete towels his neck. Roger wants someone to get their little idea factory working, which can only mean one thing: the Avocado people liked their pitch and the ‘Brain Food For Mice’ ads are in motion!

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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.