Mad Men: Christmas Comes But Once a Year

The face of hip and cool

It's Christmas 1964 and the folks at SCDP are cutting back on the expenses of their Christmas party. That is, until Lee Garner Jr. announces that he is coming and is looking forward to the wild parties they are known for. Because Lucky Strike is SCDP's bread and butter, they must bend over backwards and kiss Garner's ass to keep the business intact. The honchos try to plan a much wilder party than they first intended and when Garner drops by, both embarrassment and craziness ensues. At first, I thought he wasn't going to show up, ala Big Night, but the guy did indeed make it to the party. The minute he makes his entrance, the guys and the girls start partying it up with a game of pass the orange and they all partake in a conga line. Yes, this is the wild party the man asked for. No joke, he is having a blast and this is wild for 1964. I'm guessing.

Meanwhile Freddy Rumsen, now a recovering alcoholic, is brought back as a consultant to work with Peggy on a campaign for Pond's cold cream. The two have an argument over the direction they should take. Freddy, neither a woman nor young, has a "by the numbers" approach of trying to market the cream to old ladies. Peggy thinks that a beauty product like Pond's can be made hip and modern by selling it to young women. Freddy grabs onto the young part of her idea but goes on to show what a dinosaur he is by suggesting they scare women into buying Pond's because if they don't take care of their skin, they won't find a man to marry. Peggy calls him out on his archaic way of thinking and he feels both old and hurt by her harsh words.

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.