Mad Men: Public Relations

OK, so I never did my Mad Men series recap but here is my recap of the first episode of season 4.

Mad Men's back, so is the cancer

The season opens with a man sitting across from identity thief Dick Whitman, better known to the rest of us as Don Draper, asking him who Don Draper is. Is the cat out of the bag? Does everyone know? Nope. Don is being interviewed for a newspaper article on who he is as a creative director and it's supposed to give him a chance to plug the newly formed agency of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce (SCDP). I know, what a mouthful. I guess the days of just calling ad agencies "Method" are still decades away. What Don goes on to do through the rest of his interview is basically do what Don does best: act stoic, be a prick, and say as little as possible. For a man who knows how to sell the hell out of mundane crap, he doesn't know a thing about selling his company. I won't attempt to hide my disdain for him. I don't like Don at all.

When the article is released, the rest of SCDP and their clients are miffed because Don failed to dazzle and work the article into an ad for either his agency or their clients. Don is the only one who doesn't see a problem with how he handled the article and even though everyone else kisses his feet in adoration for his creativity, he failed to be an ad man when it really counted. SCDP is a start-up with a few clients but they aren't rolling with accounts the way they were when they were just Sterling Cooper. This was Don's chance to set himself apart from the pack and define SCDP as the kind of trail blazing ad agency that he wants it to be. Instead, he has to deal with moral goodie-two-shoes for the rest of the episode who want a new ad campaign for their non-sexy and non-racy bikini that is made with only moral people in mind.

Elsewhere in the Mad Men world: Betty is remarried to Henry, her daughter Sally is continuing the bitchy attitude we started to see in season 3, her son Bobby likes sweet potatoes, Peggy has a boyfriend (I think), Pete is still slimy, Harry has some kind of sun burn or rash on his face, and Sal might actually be gone because he was neither mentioned nor seen in the season opener. I keep hoping that Sal will come back to the show and the formation of SCDP seems like the perfect way to bring him back.

The episode's title pretty much says what the whole episode is about. It really is about public relations for almost every character. They all want to be seen and accepted in a certain way, possibly divorced from the reality of who they really are. Betty wants to be accepted into the family of her new husband so that when Sally throws a tantrum at the Thanksgiving table, Betty goes into damage control and claims that Sally is "sick". SCDP are in a fancy building and their space is supposed to impress people. yet, they can't even pull it together for a conference table. Be it stunts, damage control, or plugs, public relations exists to mold and shape an attitude and general opinion that is favorable. It's the positive spin on a sex scandal, the philanthropic wing of a crooked company, the happy smile we put on even if we're dying inside.




Don is probably the most obvious example because his entire identity is a fabrication of who he wants to present. He's tight lipped and an enigma most of the time because cutting yourself off from the world is safer than being exposed as the poor country bumpkin that he is. Don's duality is what makes him so fascinating and such a good PR man for himself. He has created an entire public persona that is nothing more than good grooming and cold stares and people buy it! But in this episode we start to see a fracture in his strategy because who Don wants to be may not always be what's right for Don.

Don goes on a blind date. Is that hair on your chest?

Of all the women Don has had affairs with over the years, he never had to pay any of them to sleep with him. He's Don Draper and women threw themselves in his direction all the time. What has changed for Don is that he is a divorced man now. In the episode he is set up on a blind date with a girl who is a Betty Draper look alike but she is apprehensive about dating a divorced man. Apparently an available once married man was less desirable in the 1960s than an unavailable currently married cheating man. Go figure. They kiss at the end of their date but she declines his advances to take it upstairs. Later,  on Thanksgiving, we see a foxy minx in a tight number enter Don's apartment and instead of going for his zipper, Don goes for his wallet. So it's come to this Don. You are now a John. His change in status, if I remember correctly, was a result of the fake life he created for himself. Betty put up with a lot of his distance, his sexual escapades, but the final straw for her was finding out that the man she married was all just good PR. Don is now facing the consequences of his handy work. What Don wants to be ended up forcing him into a situation where he can't spin it anymore. He can't escape the reality that he is damaged goods. He's a victim of his own public relations. If only he had hid the evidence a little better.

The bikini ad campaign they really didn't want

What I think this episode is giving us a glimpse into is that Don is going to adapt again but this time, I get the feeling that he's taking the final PR avenue for a scoundrel: the truth. Will he come out and tell the world about his past? No, I don't think he'll take it that far but I think he's going to try to be more honest and less reserved. No doubt he's still going to be a serious man but the fractured double life might finally converge into one, making him whole again. Remember that bikini account I mentioned at the beginning?  I think that was a wake up call for Don. The way Don handled the newspaper article was all about how Don wanted to control his own image but it ultimately hurt his business and his own desire for creative control and whim. He maintained his public image intact. One of his business partners even said that he sounded like a prick in the article. Yep, that's good ol' Don. The price he paid for maintaining his façade was attracting the kind of clients that want a boring dude with a stick up his bum to give them trite advertising for bikinis. Don sees and understands this by episode's end and he begins to see that in order to get the kind of clients he wants and do the work he wants to do, then he needs to change his public relations strategy and maybe change as a man, too. The episode ends with Don chatting it up like I've never seen with a reporter for the Wall Street Journal. A new feature article, for a new man with a new business to maintain.

Don smiles? Maybe he is a different guy.

This was a strong start for season 4 and I hope it keeps the momentum going. My biggest gripe with seasons past is that the middle lags in a wayward plot or story that doesn't seem to add to the larger serialized story they are trying to tell.