Mad Men 4x12 Reaction

The cigarettes marketed towards women they mentioned were "Virginia Slims" which were a real product. They were launched in the late 60's specifically marketed to women with a thinner, longer cigarette. "Leo Burnett" is the real ad agency that got that account. They created the famous "You've Come a Long Way, Baby" campaign.

I love the scene between Peggy and Don in this episode where he asks her what she thinks about the letter. Her line "I thought you didn't go in for such shenanigans" is a reference to Don's reaction to the stunt Peggy and Pete pulled, where they paid two women to fake a fight at the beginning of the season.

Pete is an account man… having accounts is kind of the whole deal. Ken has some too.

That conversation between Don and the Heinz guy in the opening scene makes me wonder just how much practical validity there is to thinking that deeply about products as simple as beans & ketchup. To me, it almost felt like a conversation between two people suffering from advertising brainrot, but maybe I'm wrong.

Enjoying the ‘every other episode’ tradition of Trudy showing up, stealing a scene and then leaving

Lola just want them working in a hotel haha

Regressing to working out of a hotel room is not a thing. This business is highly image conscious. Prestige begets prestige and the reverse is true as well. Already with just this Lucky Strike news the clients are fleeing while they are in a chic midtown office. The reason they worked out of a hotel room in the season 3 finale was because they were breaking away and time was of the essence. That was a power move. Everyone would have understood that it was a temporary measure until they found a new office. Losing so much business that you can't pay the rent and have to downsize to a smaller office is a complete different story. If that office ends up being a hotel room, you're never recovering from the reputational damage. But that just wouldn't happen anyway. Pete, Don, and many others would simply have jumped ship. Partnerships like SCDP don't shrink back to their initial state. They get absorbed or simply collapse.

Maybe the best Inflation Calculator episode in the series? Let's start small: Don gives Midge, a heroin addict, $120 for her painting. In 1965, that's like $1,100. Yeah, she isn't putting that in the bank. Next, how about Don's full-page ad in the New York Times. Today, that would cost upwards of $100,000, so Don probably paid something in the neighbourhood of $10K. And of course there's the infusion of money into the company. Don's share, $100K, would be almost a million dollars today. After covering Pete, he's in for $1.5M in 2025 dollars. All told, calculating for inflation, Don spent something in the approaching $1.6M this week. Which is a lot.

A great touch (very easy to miss) is that one of the people who Megan says has been trying to call Don is Emerson Foote. He was a real-life ad man who quit McCann Ericson because he didn't want to represent the tobacco industry any more, and became an anti-smoking activist. He was the PRESIDENT of McCann Ericson (the big company that has loomed over SC/SCDP for the whole series), and he actually took the moral stand that Don pretends to take. Great touch. Don definitely went about it the wrong way, but he was correct that his letter changed the conversation about their agency. Instead of people talking about them as a dying company, now they're talking about them as a treacherous company. And that may not be good, but it's SURVIVABLE. People do business with companies they hate all the time, so it just may give them the lifeline they need. Another tidbit: The 'cigarette for women' that Phillip Morris is developing are Virginia Slims, which they launch in 1968.

Lola has clearly never heard a Kennedy speak lol, that was a half-decent (if somewhat exaggerated) impression of their famous manner of speaking.

Mad Men was brought to HBO this week and the show is again suddenly the topic of convo among the literati and taste makers on social media. I find that a bit strange because in the US at least, the show was always available to stream. When these reactions started it was on AMC+, to which I subbed just for these reactions. Before that, Mad Men streamed on Netflix for ages. The show never went anywhere. It's just interesting that merely moving to HBO suddenly brings back the show into cultural relevance. It says something about the power and status of HBO, I guess (though they getting rightfully dragged for some egregious technical fuck ups in this version). The renewed conversation about the show made me realize that it won the Emmys for best drama *four years in a row*. That's kinda crazy. I've always thought of Mad Men as something of a niche show but in retrospect, it was clearly more popular and more of a cultural phenomenon than I remembered. All that to say, everyone is talking about Mad Men again and it's great.

Lola: 'I didn't know Heinz had beans' Every Brit: 'What do you meaaaaaaan?'

Why I’m Quitting Tobacco Recently my advertising agency ended a long relationship with Lucky Strike cigarettes. And I’m relieved. For over 25 years we devoted ourselves to peddling a product for which good work is irrelevant, because people can’t stop themselves from buying it. A product that never improves, causes illness, and makes people unhappy. But there was money in it. A lot of money. In fact, our entire business depended on it. We knew it wasn’t good for us, but we couldn’t stop. And then, when Lucky Strike moved their business elsewhere, I realized, here was my chance to be someone who could sleep at night, because I know what I’m selling doesn’t kill my customers. So as of today, Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce will no longer take tobacco accounts. We know it’s going to be hard. If you’re interested in cigarette work, here’s a list of agencies that do it well: BBDO, Leo Burnett, McCann Erickson, Cutler Gleason & Chaough, and Benton & Bowles. As for us, we welcome all other business because we’re certain that our best work is still ahead of us. Sincerely, Donald F. Draper Creative Director Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce

Luv u guys. You make watching Mad Men again so much fun! Also love your long, in depth review/analysis after each episode! :-)