This week we get a glimpse of
Don Draper's
rise in the world of advertising, a new look at
Roger Sterling
and a disgusting gaze at the new Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce art director whom, for purposes I'll explain later, I will call
SAD
. (The character's real name is
Stan Rizzo
, in case you were wondering.)
A new up-and-comer meets with Don and
Peggy Olson
, in the vain hope of getting a job at SCDP. His portfolio contains two kinds of ads: ones by other people that he likes (such as the famous Volkswagen
ad) and others he did himself, all playing off the idiom "the cure for the common …"
Don and Peggy are not impressed. But, it turns out the young upstart named
Danny
is the cousin of Roger's wife. So Roger wants him to hire the untalented kid, but Don has no interest in doing so.
Peggy, meanwhile, has until Monday to come up with an ad campaign for
cough drops, forcing her to work with the horrible new art director, SAD. That stands for
sleazy art director
, but if you prefer it can stand for sexist art director.
Why is he sexist? Because he treats women (esp. Peggy) like second-class citizens. Why is he sleazy? Because he's also a nudist who spends the weekend reading
Playboy
(no hyperlink – don't be perverse) in a hotel room while Peggy does all the work on the ad campaign. But more on that later.
The SCDP crew is up for a
– advertising's equivalent of the Oscars – for the Glo-Coat ad. The awards are Friday, the same day the agency has to pitch a campaign to
Life Cereal
. But after the client's flight was canceled out of Philadelphia, Don and company decide to start the CLIO celebration early. Out with the meeting, in with the drinking!
Peggy, who says she came up with the idea for Glo-Coat, doesn't get invited to the awards ceremony. She has to stay behind with SAD to come up with ad slogans for cough drops. So Don, Roger, Pete and Joan head to the ceremony, where Pete finds out
Ken Cosgrove
might join SCDP, the firm wins an award and a really drunk
Duck Phillips
(remember him? He was a recovering alcoholic who's back off the wagon, apparently) gets thrown out.
Right after picking up the trophy, Don learns that the Life people made it after all. Who knew you could drive from Philadelphia to New York? He drunkenly decides to go ahead with the pitch meeting. It's not going so well until he starts brainstorming slogans:
- "Life: The reason to get out of bed in the morning."
- "Life is just a bowl of Life cereal."
- "Life: The cure for the common breakfast"
Uh-oh.
Of course, that's the one the client loves. Don doesn't know he stole that from Danny. Peggy knows and tries unsuccessfully to tell him. He tells her she has to spend the weekend in a hotel with SAD until they come up with a campaign for Vick cough drops.
Peggy seems like a bit of a whiner in the first part of this episode. But she totally redeems herself in the hotel scene. SAD explains he's most creative if he's nude, so Peggy strips down to nothing and gets to work. SAD does the same but he's the first to rerobe. Great job, Peggy.
What about Don? I have heard from other recovering alcoholics that you can't start actual recovery until you hit rock bottom. Sad as Don seems in this episode, I don't think he's quite there yet. But he's well on his way:
- Don gives the aforementioned Life meeting while
- He goes to bed Friday night with a
- He misses his appointment to
- When he emerges, he goes from the bathroom to the couch, dressed only in boxers and a bathrobe and
- Oh, and I almost forgot: He leaves his CLIO
That's the condition he's in when Peggy knocks on his door Sunday night.
I don't want to quibble, but did New York City not invent intercom buzzers until the 1970s or something? How does she knock right on his apartment door? He seems surprised to see her, so he couldn't have buzzed her in.
Anyway, this is her first chance to tell Don that he stole Danny's idea. Don has absolutely no memory of this. He's forced to buy the idea from Danny, but Roger's cousin-in-law won't take anything less than a job. So guess who's starting at SCDP?
Interwoven with this episode are flashbacks to Don's first meetings with Roger. I won't get into it here except to say that it involves a
fur coat for Joan
, an annoying
upstart with a lousy portfolio
and a conversation that Roger apparently
doesn't remember
.
So maybe five years down the road, Danny will win a CLIO. Hopefully Don's liver will last that long.
Favorite lines:
- "I told him to be himself. That was pretty mean, I guess."
- "I'll have a Seven and Seven."
- "You have legs."
- "Neither you nor the client was in a condition to notice."
- "Aspiration's as good as perspiration"
- "That's not how it goes."
- "Look, I read your brochure. I have no interest in the temperance movement."
If you missed last night's episode, here's the video recap. Meanwhile, share your thoughts in the comments below.