Mad Men returns. Thumbs up or down?

Next time Hamm hosts SNL, it could be a decent running gag for the show.

 

I definitely enjoyed that episode. So much of the first half spent setting up with "Oh, shit, that's gonna come back to haunt them" and the second half paying it off.

Megan had no clue what she was getting into. Don's relationship with women and prostitution would take a team of psychiatrists years to dig through. Telling him "It's just my job" is not going to put him a place she doesn't want him to go, hypocritical or not. He wants to see her as the exception, not the rule.

Harry's "I'm taking the check, but it didn't make me happy" moment was my favorite of the season so far.

I and many others apparently misinterpreted the final scene. It sure seemed to me like Peggy's firm got the account, but then apparently not? Confusing.

 

Apparently many, many people interpreted it as you did, including numerous reviewers. From Alan Sepinwall (who did get it right initially):

 

I think they're absolutely pointless.

 

No series in the history of the medium has taken greater perverse joy in running previews that give the viewer NOTHING than MM.

 

Anyone else think Don liked Peggy's idea better than his own?

 

Absolutely.

 

I think he smiled at the "change the conversation" line. His idea was much better, and he couldn't see hers.

 

I thought Don's approach was great. He was selling about half of Heinz's 57 products with one campaign and in a way skirting his promise to not do ketchup advertising while still putting ketchup in the minds of most people who read the advertisement.

Edit: On second thought, I'm thinking about this as a customer in 2013, not 1968. Would putting different things in Heinz's product line like sweet and sour sauce or horseradish on a burger or hot dog in 1968 have occured to people? I don't know.

 

The Heinz 57 is a gimmick. They didn't have 57 products when it started and now have many more.

Yet if Mad Men were real life and Heinz took Don's suggestion, we might use Heinz the same way we use Kleenex and Q-tip, interchangeably with the product.

 

Wow. Their advertising worked on me, I guess.

 

I love the old story, which I'm not sure is actually true or not, that Joe DiMaggio missed out on a big endorsement deal with Heinz when his hit streak ended at 56 instead of 57 games. I guess in real life there was no Don Draper or Peggy Olsen available to come up with a clever pitch about how 56 is great, but not quite 57, or something like that.