The advertising business of the '50s and '60s wasn't kind to women. Many of the show's characters sleep with their secretaries, and one of the company partners seduces young aspiring models. "Woman are openly disrespected," said The Ottinger Firm's New York Employment Lawyer Blog. "It is a great show and you can see that there were virtually no checks on office behavior."
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The ad titans got to do many fun things that are verboten today, from drinking and smoking at work to having sex in their offices. The women of the era, for example, would smoke and drink regularly while pregnant. "She's drinking and smoking more now that she's pregnant!" January Jones, who plays Betty Draper, told AMCtv.com. "Matt [Weiner] gets a kick out of it. It's fiction—it's not like I advocate it—but you have to just laugh at it."
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Oh, Miss Blankenship. We all miss Don Draper's old, hilariously incompetent secretary who was hired as punishment for Don's sexual tryst with his previous secretary, Allison. However, she was quite the hellcat back in her day—the "Queen of Perversion of the highest order," who even slept with Roger in her (and his) younger days, according to a tape-recorded message heard by Don and Peggy. Sadly, Miss Blankenship was found dead at her desk, and the world of Mad Men was never the same.
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In Mad Men's penultimate Season Four episode, Don attempts to save a canceled meeting with Phillip Morris executives by writing a journal entry titled, "Why I'm Quitting Tobacco." In it, he explains how his firm—and the American people—don't need tobacco, saying it "never improves, causes illness, and makes people unhappy," but are open to other business. Don then sends the entry to The New York Times where it runs a full-page ad. Initially, the other Mad Men at SCDP are furious, but will it actually save the company? For now, take a sip of booze and eagerly await the results.
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As Pete Campbell's wife Trudy stood by her man through his affair with their au pair, he bravely stands by her fashion choices, including her fabulous-but-bordering-on-ridiculous collection of hats. Trudy first introduced the world to her hats with a Jackie O-inspired number on Episode 8 of Season One ("The Hobo Code"), presumably to celebrate the signing of her and Pete's Park Avenue apartment. Since then, she hasn't looked back.
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Mad Men is a show drenched in history, and it ingeniously uses these historical points to propel the plot forward. Take "Flight 1" (Episode 2.2), which saw Pete Campbell exploit his father's death in the American Airlines Flight 1 crash in order to bring about a new client, or the effect Marilyn Monroe's death has on the women of Sterling/Cooper in "Six Month Leave" (Episode 2.9). Throughout the series we've seen how the characters were affected by everything from the Cuban Missile Crisis to the Kennedy assassination, so tip your glass to American history.
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Back in the show's first episode, new hire Peggy is touring the Sterling/Cooper offices and stumbles into the bathroom, only to find a gaggle of weeping secretaries, presumably heartbroken by their womanizing employers. However, "at the new SCDP they cry openly, and in Allison's case, even shout," according to the Mad Men TALK blog. "No more hiding away in the bathroom." Heck, even Don cried in front of Peggy following Anna's death during Episode 7 of this season. Here's to heartbreak.
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During the series premiere, set in 1960, Don mended fences with execs from Lucky Strike cigarettes by coining the slogan "It's Toasted!" to ease consumer's fears about the dangerous effects of cigarette smoking. Since then, SCDP has devised ad campaigns for everyone from Heineken to Playtex. So toast the creative success of your favorite fictional ad company with a nice, big chug.
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In an ironic twist, the actors who portray Mad Men's two booze-swilling head honchos—Don Draper (Jon Hamm) and Roger Sterling (John Slattery)— sell cars on the side. Yes, while Hamm provides voiceover work for Mercedes-Benz, Slattery recently became the new spokesman for Ford's Lincoln cars. Slattery "represents the potential customer that Ford Motor is seeking to attract to the Lincoln brand— a luxury-car buyer in his 40s and 50s," the marketing director of Ford told The New York Times, failing to add "who likes drinking during the day, sleeping with the secretaries, and letting loose one-liners," said Vulture.
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In the penultimate episode of Season 4, SCDP lost their biggest client, Lucky Strike cigarettes, and was forced to downsize. "In doing this, Weiner has cannily mirrored our times in 2010," said Showbiz 411's Roger Friedman. "Watching the staff pack up at SCD was all too reminiscent of what's happening right now at so many small companies."
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Despite the rampant sexual harassment on the show, Mad Men is indeed a fine showcase for its virtuous female characters—except Betty Draper. Granted, during the earlier seasons her icy character was given a pass as she was manipulated by her husband and grieving her mother's death. But as the show has progressed, "Her character (in both senses) gets ever icier, vainer, more alien— nearly camp at times, like some hissable Barbie with the most cake," said Vulture, making her "the worst mother on television since Livia Soprano kicked off in 2001." Catching a smile from Betty Draper is like seeing a shooting star, so you better drink up.
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