This is the scene that finally made me realise exactly why Don was always so reluctant to work at McCann Erickson. It was never about freedom or liberty, but the powerlessness and lack of recognition associated with a big corporation. Don needs to fee wanted and valued because Dick Whitman never was, and in a company like McCann Erickson, he'd never feel like a respected individual
I think there's also a sense of being disposable. I think it's less of him knowing he's not the star of attention, but knowing he can't be a maverick anymore because he's simply an automated piece that is expected to work as equally as all the other people, and with no deviation or liberty.
@@truthhandler6828 Don can't have NPD, he exhibits massive self-loathing and has the capacity to view himself objectively, be humble and admit he was wrong
Interesting, i see it similar but a bit different: Don grew up in a box. A box of expectations of poverty and low status. His whole adult life he has been trying to escape a box, a mental prison. Went to war to try to escape. He even stole a brand new persona to try and escape some. He does not like to feel in a box, inprisoned, controlled. I think the box lunch and conformity in that meeting triggered him. Then he saw outside the window for freedom. Thats why his personal life he is always alone. Thats why he refused a written contract till practically forced. He started breaking down in last season when all that running, and acting finally caught up to him. He had to go crazy some and ended up in that yoga place resort. There he finally learned he did not to physically be anything to escape the box(rich, pretend tough, married, women, liquor, cars, business), but could let go and escape mentally by breathing and being more in the moment, instead of always having to act and feel he was not worthy of life. He was able to let go of himself and feel some real compassion for another human being suffering when he cried with and hugged that dude. That last shot of the series where he is meditating, breathing, just enjoying the moment he learns to finally escape his mental self torture, and has his best artistic idea yet coming from calm, instead of desperation like his past business life, which makes him smile.
sanitized board room, sanitized people talking about "stimulating imaginations" when doing precise opposite. attempting to narrow thoughts by placing this supposed "man" who there are a million of within a neartly defined box, and Don seeing the essence of his beloved industry boiled down to a horrific science, while he begins feeling like the very man being described in the presentation before him. because he's now one of many totally indistinguishable creative directors, nameless, faceless, and being trapped inside a behemoth corporation without a soul. he's inside the boxed lunch "with his name on it," with a laminated sterile set of facts that are marketing to a simplified caricature robbed of any inner life. he sees the plane flying above and chooses that route instead, leaving his ubiquitous can of coke untouched, he's flies away. the one place he could express himself at least occasionally in fleeting moments of connective brilliance disguised as an ad pitch -- that world is now gone. he's a living relic of a time abruptly and unceremoniously past.
Yet, tragically, he ultimately returns to McCann Erickson to bring them the winning idea for Coca-Cola. He's trapped in this life forever, unable to escape the vacuum that is corporate America, realizing that the "American Dream" is a hoax - as much a lie as his own name. The handsome Don Draper has become synonymous with the deeply flawed, beautiful land of America.
I love Ted's expression at the end. It wasn't a judgmental scoff as some might think. But more of a "go find what works for you Don. Good for you." Almost like he's proud of him.
The scene where he looks out the window to see a plane. How many of us when we were in school, when we were fortunate enough to sit by a window, looking up to watch a plane/contrail go by, thinking about where it was going, or wishing we were on it looking down upon the ground, while not paying attention to the teacher?
When I was experiencing hell at home, I called my uncle and he told me that the world is more than what happens in my house. After the call I looked up at a plane just like this, knowing I’d soon be able to live with other relatives in a better environment.
In this scene, surrounded by like-minded lookalikes and soulless sophisticates, Don realizes he’s become what he’s been selling this whole time: A product.
All the canned terminology and predictable BS as well. I got out of a successful sales career because I couldn't take the fakeness any longer. If I heard the phrase "low hanging fruit" on more time I was going to blow a gasket and cause someone bodily injury....lol
Mad Men must have at least a dozen best scenes of all time. Cooper’s last dance, the carousel pitch, “New York is a marvelous machine, wound tight”, Lane firing everyone, Peggy & Don all-nighter and he learns of Anna’s passing, Rodger bribing Peggy, Betty finding out his secret past, Lane & Pete fight.. Connie Hilton... anything Cooper is in.. man, it goes on and on and on. It’s gotta be the greatest show of all time.
I completely agree--I'd specifically add the scene with Connie Hilton where Don hops over the bar at the country club and makes them a couple cocktails, even though Don has no idea who he is.
There's one thing more obnoxious than a well-heeled executive giving a talk about the "average" man: a well-heeled politician giving a talk about the "average" man.
PrincepsComitatus But that's not what transformed him. His transformation started when he was broken down to nothing, when he was forced to atone for his egotism. His journey was only complete when he connected, when he brushed souls against a man whose life was radically different from his own. Don found himself by confronting his failure and powerlessness, and by learning that in reality, we never do anything meaningful alone.
@@markofsaltburn look at who you're trying to convince lol. The nuance is going to be lost on a wanna-be macho Roman Empire fanboi. He's part of the Trump-supporting school of madmen fans who see superficial strength of will and confidence and uncritically admire it, as they do with Donald.
Never was much of a Ted fan but he nailed that last look at the end there as he sees Don leave. If I remember correctly, that was his last scene on the series.
It's fitting that Draper, realizing that if he is to make a difference in a place like mccann, he has to do something to elevate he and his position beyond the mcdrones he is now surrounded with. Retaining his dignity he quietly slips out of the meeting and hits the american highway, chasing ghosts and reliving his youth, only to end up in some new age hippy retreat for broken souls, of which he has become one. Only to return to mcann as the man who writes The Coke ad. Like any conquering hero, he has to get down before he gets back up. After all this is Don Draper we are talking about.
Hi Moo01100 - yeah - you get it and tell it well. It seems that not many people realise that the last scene of the last episode is the fact that Don sees that the new age Hippy scene is just as vacuous as anything else and goes back to Macann and writes the epic Coke Ad.
@@peanutjelly727 The real life ad was a McCann-Erickson creation, but several things in the final episodes point to that. Coca-Cola is mentioned as this sort of holy grail of accounts as soon as the SC&P crew is moved into McCann, and you can see Coke gradually gaining a larger presence as a set piece. In this scene, for example, everyone at that table is offered one. Later on, when Don hits the road, the Coca-Cola machine at the motel where Don stays is also very conspicuously placed, especially since the owner asks Don to fix it. Don't forget that during his final phone call with Peggy, one of the ways she tries to entice him is by asking him if he isn't excited by the prospect of working on the Coke account. Peggy also reassures him that McCann would welcome him back with open arms; after his wording suggests to her that he might try self-harm or suicide, he deliberately ends the phone call with a "see you soon". If you recall, the two of them have a conversation in an earlier episode in which Peggy mentions her ambition to create something of lasting value, which Don is sceptical of due to the ephemeral and very artificial nature of advertising. As far as the ad itself goes, its placement is extremely specific: seconds after we see Don meditating and a smile coming to his face accompanied by a bell indicating a light bulb moment. The fact that some of the characters he meets resemble the people in the ad seems to be a very conscious choice for the writers, and the show is known for its attention to detail. Both Weiner and Jon Hamm interpret the ending in this way--Don's reconciliation with who he really is, an ad man of exceptional talent. This moment of clarity gives him the idea for the ad, which can be interpreted cynically as him commodifying the sense of communion at the heart of the hippie movement, but there's also a kernel of sincerity to it.
Best scene of all time is a bit steep. But I loved everything about it. The guy speaking is essentially Don in season one. And you see him creating a fake scenerio, a fake guy, a fake life, to drum up genuine emotion. All for the purposes of selling beer. You can tell Don is having an out of body experience watching this guy, and it's the catalyst to pushes him to leave to find what he should have found years ago: The free things that are the key to true happiness. Teds face was great too. He knew Don wasn't coming back. And there was this look of admiration that Don was going to drop it all to do what he needed to do.
Don sees it as the commoditization of what he created. It became impersonal -- it's a research guy giving the presentation, not a creative. Don hated statistics because there was no human insight to them. He's seeing the technique he used to employ so well become appropriated and corrupted by the same kinds of guys who could never understand him ten years ago. It's not special anymore. He has no interest in being a part of that, so he walks out.
@@paulbeen459 But why is everyone so sure that Don created the Coke ad? Why are people so sure that he even went back to advertising at all? Yes, there were parallels between his experience at the retreat and the ad itself, but why would he go back to living in an identity that wasn't his? Wasn't that the cause of his inner turmoil in the first place? He was using Don Draper's identity to run away from his past. Wouldn't his ultimate goal be self-acceptance in his true identity as Dick Whitman?
@@peanutjelly727 You should look at analysis videos. He did this ad because he found peace in his inner self and came back to his old way of life, but apprehended it in a different way
I always loved the underlying joke of this scene "I'm going to describe to you a man of very specific qualities" *Proceeds to give the describe the most generic everyman description*
Reminds me of Don seeing the fly on the ceiling in the pilot episode which everyone thought had some symbolic meaning but I believe Matthew Weiner said he put in there because it’s familiar and everyone has done that in an office. Same here for this airplane I would surmise.
Ted knew that Don would be back... Don always comes back & always has some world class award winning idea when he does, hence why Don is always accepted back when he shows up after running away. Ted is impressed with how quickly Don doesn't even pretend to change/fit in & just automatically stays true to his nature and modus operandi... when Don is uncomfortable or unhappy then Don always runs away, Ted is excited to see what Don comes back with
I think this scene reverts back to the lipstick meeting. Don doesn't want to be one of just the regular creative he wants to feel special to be the guy and that's what that plane illustrates freedom from fear happiness
And also the first conversation of the series with his server, the Old Gold Man… “I can’t get you to try any other cigarette, like my Lucky’s”. “Ohhh no” he says,
Bingo! It is the second take on the lipstick scene that Don headlines. And that is what gets right to him! He’s in a commodity business where you can’t fantasize the customer’s uniqueness.
it's hilarious how Ted goes from extremely unhappy with the duties and responsibilities of being a partner to loving life at the end of the series when just being a creative is his only responsibility.
The scene where Don returns to New York from California, and pitches the famous Coke ad, exists only in our imaginations. But we can picture it. What a great bookend that pitch scene makes when paired with this one shown here.
there is nothing worse than a new creative director joining an agency and on his first day, attends a meeting only to discover, he is in a meeting with a dozen other creative directors.
McCann-Eriksen essentially received Peggy, Stan, Ted, and Roger. Joan moves on to become a Commercial Producer. Pete leaves for far greener pastures. Don breezes out to find his true self he's been hiding his entire adult life. It's funny how McCann chased them for so long, but did not understand who they were dealing with.
I can't help but think back to Don's conversation with Ken Cosgrove after Ken's firing. Ken was sitting in the phone booth afterwords when Don came up to him. Ken told Don it was a sign that he was fired. "The life not lived," as Ken said and that his firing was a sign. When Don looks out the window to the airplane, I think he remembers Ken's words and then walks out. Wish I could do that.
But then Cosgrove takes a job for a major McCann client, for the sole purpose of walking all over Pete Campbell and Roger Sterling, as payback for firing him.
well, you can, and the wishing is part of the illusion you're selling to yourself that you can't. Once you truly see that, the pain of not doing will be greater than the fear of doing, and doing will finally occur to you as the easier & obvious path.
The real greatness of this show was not just in the stars, but also the secondary characters, like Ted, or Duck, or Freddy, or Megan. They had depth, they were real, and they added so much to the show. Man, I miss this show!
Blue Forrester you can. I make 80,000 bucks per year. Its not great money and not bad. I always looked out the window though and I was never told how to think, how I should react. I'm 36 years old and I also have not answered to a supervisor in over 10 years. It feels glorious 🙂
It's not easy to live the way I do. Most humans don't have the balls. I never cared if I had to stay at a homeless shelter a day or two. I can do things mentally, that most people won't. Therefore I work for no one. Not a single boss. Now my life is easier at 36 years of age, because I got tougher over the stretch of things. Come and go as I please and pay my bills with a descent salary...
The way I saw this scene was the guy was describing Don too well, cause the more we think we’re different from the people around us, the more we really are just the same. Don looks at the plane as a sort of escape, wants to feel like he matters above the grand scheme of life. When Don escapes and gets to California he hugs the guy while they’re both crying even though the guy Don is hugging is the complete opposite of Don, but on the inside they faced the same issue, the inability to love themselves. When Don cracks a smile while he’s meditating it reminds of the scene where Ana Draper is reading him based on the tarot cards and says “The only thing keeping you from being happy is the belief that you are alone”. That’s when Don realizes no matter how tragic his life was, everybody eventually deals with the same things, in the matter of life and death. It’s where he gets the idea for the coke commercial and even though I don’t think it cures him entirely, I think he’s better off learning what his place in the universe really was. Don has always been good at creating the perfect ideal life in his ads, always channeling his inner Dick Whitman for moments of vulnerability, but he always turned in Don Draper for all the relationships that really mattered to him. The end of the series is just him realizing he’s going lose everyone he’s ever loved and they have no idea who he really is and the only way he can connect to them with is to be honest. Throughout the series he’s been losing the frame of Don Draper slowly and slowly because the women he cared for never really knew Dick Whitman, they’ve only seen Don Draper. That’s when he calls the three most important women in his life, Betty, Peggy and Sally, and has an honest conversation with them. Throughout the series you can also notice that when Dons back is against the wall with Betty, he tries explain his past and she doesn’t care anymore. Then he meets Dr. Faye and he tells her about his past to ease his guilt and his mind when the feds were doing background checks on him for the business Pete brought in. Then with Megan she knows everything in the beginning of season 5 already and we only know this through their conversations. Dons inability to let people see the real him is what keeps him from being happy, because he subconsciously chooses to be alone, chooses to be the strong silent type which brings people closer but never too close. The last season when he meets the waitress, he treats her with his most vulnerable side, and she still leaves, causing him to go look for her to understand why she didn’t like him being Dick Whitman. You can tell the frustration Don goes through is needed for him to reach a level of enlightenment. He just needed a second to breathe and reflect, theres no going back and he’s reached a comfortable level in his life and chooses to be okay. Most of the show is about how the characters have a lot but it’s never enough, they always look at each other (most of the time at Don) as the grass is always greener on the other side. I think when Don realizes he needs to stop chasing and just start living is when he realizes what true peace and happiness can really mean for him. I’ve watched Mad men about 3 times and I safely say it’s the show that’s has the biggest impact on how I view things in my life now. This, the sopranos and the wire are incredible shows.
The fact that Don had the presence of mind to remember to take the Box Lunch shows he was in fact " Paying Attention" to what was important in that room which was The Voice in His Soul telling him to Get Up and Go
As a sales manager for PepsiCo and Kraft I sat through hundreds of these meetings in 30 years! Once a VP suggested that our sales could be stimulated by a “stack in the back” meaning extra inventory in the back room! The sheep erupted into applause, I am so sorry I didn’t have Don’s courage and walk out or better yet, jump up on the conference table and take a shit!!
I did like the scene...I always wondered what was in that box lunch, I loved that Don didn't just walk out he made sure they were going to feed him too!
Thank you. I have been searching all over on TH-cam to see this again and finally I can. One of the best scenes of the entire show, sad and beautiful when Don looks out the window and wants to escape from that room, from the top of the corporate advertising latter where they've reducing so many lives to an idea of a market of a man. Even after this airing of this episode, as of last month, Miller, even as big as they were, were just acquired by AB InBev (the merger after the Dutch company InBev acquired Anheuser-Busch) for $104 billion in the largest beer corporate acquisition ever. It's an endless subsuming of smaller companies by larger and fewer ones. Sad state of affairs, but I hope it will reverse if people awake and use the internet to its full potential. Anyway, thank you for uploading this clip; it's the only upload on TH-cam and I'm glad that you made the time to put it up.
The good news is that people who appreciate good beer have responded by supporting more local breweries and brands. That's what I've seen lately in stores where I buy beer and at my favorite pubs. In fact, InBev's distributors have been raising their prices across the board from retail to restaurants and those places have responded by diversifying their offerings to customers instead of just raising prices and maintaining the status quo.
Michael P. Reid What? You are delusional and indoctrinated. This show is an indictment against consumerism and you write as if it can be pure and holy.
That's all Janie Bryant, the costume designer. He is dressed to separate himself from the other ad men. Check out the Mad Style blog from Tom and Lorenzo, it gives some great insight into the costume designer and how it compels the story.
@@billyaugust Don Drinks " Old Fashions " for a reason. Just like his style from season 1 with the grey flannel suit never changes and his approach to advertising stays true to his personality. He was never ready to change much like when he turns the Beatles album off or most interactions with Meagan.
I don't think the board room is sterile or the pitch is sanitized. It's not even an especially formulaic approach, at least not any more so than Don would have taken. In fact, it sounds a lot like a pitch Don would have given if SCDP had given the opportunity to pitch for this business. I think Don comes in that room already feeling lost. He's already lost almost everything dear to him, except maybe Sally, but things will never be the same there either, and his ability to do great work. He's had that almost the entire length of the show and he's been complimented on it and reminded it of it pretty constantly. And then he realizes that supposedly your greatest skill and accomplishment is not nearly the thing he thought it was. They at McCann agree he's great, but it doesn't really matter. It's a machine that has a shiny new little part, and it just keeps going. I think is just kind of the straw that broke the camel's back. Don realizes that he's a broken man and no amount of work is going to fix his true problems, and so he leaves. Anyway, I just finished the show last night, it was great.
Such an incredible scene!!! When the one guy asks Chaugh if he's there to bring "them up a notch.." I still get goose bumps.. man so good and such a good ending to the series.
I love reading all the different takes in this thread that could all be 100% correct. It just proves the many layers of very consistent quality writing in this show. It seems to me that Don has spent the better part of his life building himself into that man who is the epitome of the American Dream-the kind of man who they’d be selling this beer to. Don has analyzed and collected data on just the sort of man who had all of what America promised-appearing educated, but pulling himself up by his bootstraps, 2.5 kids, beautiful wife, dogs(they don’t talk) a picket fence,top of his game at work, yet somehow Don sees himself as exceptional, different from the crowd. Of course, the name on the box of many boxes is a glaring reminder that he is just one of many in that room. But Don’s persona that he created is above it all-he is like that plane flying above the filth and ordinariness of everyone else’s mundane life. Don knows better than anyone that the American Dream, much like Don, is a sham. What you have to do to get there decays and rots your soul. Don is the king of shit mountain. But he can reinvent himself if he wants. That’s what he’s good at. He isn’t the same sandwich in every box. He is whatever product he wants to be. So, this approach is never going to be for him.
This show was written 15 years ago but it describes how corporations describe their customers to the T, just behaviours broken down into boxes you can check off
Don was über independent and creative... He hated the formulaic approach the big company was taking....the airplane represented what Don considered himself to be...high flying, unrestrained and in control. .
bza069 But Don only found himself by losing control, by realising that we can only become whole again by cultivating our relational capacity, by learning that we are made complete only with love. Mad Men is a critique of the myth of rugged American individualism, not an uncritical celebration of it. Tony Soprano never fully embraced this and he duly perished, Walter White forgot this and everyone in his life had to pay, Don Draper accepted this and rose to greater heights then he ever could have imagined.
He'd been there, he'd done that. Don was an "ideas man", who loved the rush and excitement of a big idea. He was now reduced to being a small cog in a big company on a mindless ad campaign for beer. It's a wonder he didn't run, instead of walk out of that conference room full of drones.
I worked for an international architecture firm for years. I don't know how many "Box Lunch" group design meetings I had to sit thru. I would love to have the guts that Hamm's character had....and just walk out. (And take my lunch with me...)
It's not so much the guts as it is the money, as lifelong financial security allows you to do things you can't do when you're just getting by. But yeah, I've been there, too (without the $/power to walk out).
When Don is looking out the window at the plane flying over the skyscraper, that scene is a direct hommage to the scene in the movie, The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit. The movie starred, Gregory Peck.
Don can't function like the individual that he is in that environment. Some look at that boardroom and see comfort with the big machine. Ted saw it as a place where he could just be an idea man and not have all the pressure and relax. Don saw it as a prison that cramps his style and stifles his creativity. It's why he turned them down twice earlier in the series, and then staged a coup to actually start another company rather then go work for them. Ted's expression at the end is so good. It goes from "what the hell is he doing" to "of course that's what he's doing", from surprise/shock to admiration. Ted doesn't really like his job, but is willing to trade that for the safety of McCann. He admires Don's IDGAF attitude and his willingness to throw it all away if he can't be himself...even if that means giving up what most people in that industry would consider a dream job.
I always saw the moment with Ted was more about how Ted saw Don as always trying to personally undermine him when they merged companies like when they had two juice companies or Don was late to his meetings. To Ted those always seemed to be personally directed towards himself. I think the moment he saw Don walk out during the meeting and do exactly the same things he used to do to him, he realized and felt a sense of relief that it was never personal between him and Don. Don was always treating him like he treats everyone. It was just who Don was.
I always felt this scene was about Don's sobering realization that he's not unique. The man giving the presentation is telling story much in the way Don would have and -- back in the day -- it would have seemed a fresh approach. But now Don sees it's all smoke and mirrors. It's all just noise. And it doesn't last long or resonate. Unless .... you come up with a catchy ad for Coke, that is.
I don’t know why exactly….. but the shot at 2:06 …. I just keep coming back to it. They’re can be many explanations to the deeper meaning of it… some true, whether there is a “right” answer or not… but just the way that moment makes me feel, with the music and the shot and the tone, context not necessarily even needed in that span of a few seconds, I just FEEL something that I cannot explain. And I truly appreciate that feeling even though I admittedly don’t fully understand it. Mad Men does it better than any show I have ever encountered. I hope someone feels what I feel and what an accomplishment by the people who worked on this.
This scene builds up off of so much of Ted and Don's interactions and comments about one another and from those around them. Ted is constantly in Don's rearview, as said by Don specifically at one point and shown in Ted's aspirations at one day outdoing him. One of the major crisis that occurs for Don and co. is back in Season 3 when they sell the firm to PPL and Don refuses to sign the contract that they try to box him into. Much to the consternation of everyone around him. He knows that people want him, and he's not willing to tie himself down. This is reflected in his private life and his business. When Don shows up to the meeting, his surprise isn't at the number of people around him, it's him knowing that they don't want him. He's just another emissary in the tie. Ted meanwhile tries to reassure the employee from Miller by agreeing that the hackneyed promise he's been told by everyone else in the room from every different agency is also accurate with them as well. It's unoriginal. Uninventive. It's Ted. When Don looks at the plane and decides to leave, he's doing so because he knows no one will notice nor care. Ted meanwhile just smiles to himself because at the end of the day, Pete was right. He's just another sheep. He's happy to go with the crowd and keep his head down. He's not creative. He's not Don Draper, and when he tried to be it ruined his life.
Instead of the usual take which is to speak on Don's need to stand out, be an individual, etc. I think it would also be cool to compare this scene with one of the final scenes when Don is in the therapy circle with the man who doesn't feel heard. In this room, in advertising, they're describing 'a man that everyone knows' almost like a statistic, they look at where he lives and other mundane facts, but they don't care about that man as a person. In the therapy scene, that man has a nice car, couple kids, wife, the American dream, but alas he doesn't feel heard or recognized. To the advertisers in the conference room he's just another type that can be reduced via some stats and that's all that matters, but he's more than that and is complicated and, most importantly, he wants to be heard. I think comparing the scenes you see how these advertising agencies cater to consumers in such a robotic and impersonal way. Would add to the plethora of reasons why Don resonates with him so much because his whole career was based on only understanding these statistical facts of the man instead of listening to him as another complex human.
When Don says, "This is how it works: I give you money and you give me ideas" and Peggy says "But you never say 'thank you'" and Don tells her "That's what the money is for !!!"
I always loved how Don Draper looked more and more like a man out of time as the series went on. From the beginning, he looked like a marketing committee's idealization of the perfect man in the 50s and early 60s, and he never changed. The world changed around him, and he was left behind.
Matthew Weiner has said before that Don is not "past his prime". He's not a "relic", or a "dinosaur". Don is "timeless". Don is the kind of creative director at an ad agency who, according to Miss Blankenship, is "always asleep" inside his office. He throws away the cigarette research in the first episode, because the "death wish" doesn't get to the root of people's desires. The moment he sees the plane outside the window, visions of Rachel Menken ("you missed your flight") come pouring back. Shirt-sleeves operations like the machine of McCann, with boxed lunches and tin-can researchers flogging *low calorie beer, cannot get to the heart of what people really want. What is a plane? A plane is like a carousel. It isn't "a space ship". It "takes us to a place where we ache to go again". "Around and around, and back home again, to a place where we know we are loved". After his Magical Mystery Tour, Don ends up in a white shirt, enlightened. He goes back and makes the greatest ad, ever. He walks out of this meeting because these types don't get it. Don Draper is timeless.
Besides showing that Don is just a cog in a machine and no longer a "big shot", the most devastating line is said by Ted when he basicallty confirms the pep talk given to Don earlier that made him feel important was given to everyone "take us up a notch"
I realized something completely new about this scene: The blonde man talking. This could easily be a Don pitch. It's a variation of a thousand similar pitches he's given. But the delivery is inferior. Don realized that good and "good enough" is indistinguishable in this environment. That's when he looks out the window and plots his escape.
I've been in so many meetings like this. I've gazed out of the window and wished I had huge dragon wings sprouting out of me to just fly away from all the bullshit.
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"but in the end, none wants to be one of a hundred in a box"
This!
Cyrus A just... wow.
Oh snap.
sadly tho most of us are, perhaps even 1 in tens of thousands or more
Very well done.
This is the scene that finally made me realise exactly why Don was always so reluctant to work at McCann Erickson. It was never about freedom or liberty, but the powerlessness and lack of recognition associated with a big corporation. Don needs to fee wanted and valued because Dick Whitman never was, and in a company like McCann Erickson, he'd never feel like a respected individual
I think there's also a sense of being disposable. I think it's less of him knowing he's not the star of attention, but knowing he can't be a maverick anymore because he's simply an automated piece that is expected to work as equally as all the other people, and with no deviation or liberty.
@@truthhandler6828 Don can't have NPD, he exhibits massive self-loathing and has the capacity to view himself objectively, be humble and admit he was wrong
@@truthhandler6828 I would rather rely on the DSM definition of narcissists over a fucking TH-camrs
@@truthhandler6828 damn boy maybe you're the narcissist
Interesting, i see it similar but a bit different: Don grew up in a box. A box of expectations of poverty and low status. His whole adult life he has been trying to escape a box, a mental prison. Went to war to try to escape. He even stole a brand new persona to try and escape some. He does not like to feel in a box, inprisoned, controlled. I think the box lunch and conformity in that meeting triggered him. Then he saw outside the window for freedom. Thats why his personal life he is always alone. Thats why he refused a written contract till practically forced. He started breaking down in last season when all that running, and acting finally caught up to him. He had to go crazy some and ended up in that yoga place resort. There he finally learned he did not to physically be anything to escape the box(rich, pretend tough, married, women, liquor, cars, business), but could let go and escape mentally by breathing and being more in the moment, instead of always having to act and feel he was not worthy of life. He was able to let go of himself and feel some real compassion for another human being suffering when he cried with and hugged that dude. That last shot of the series where he is meditating, breathing, just enjoying the moment he learns to finally escape his mental self torture, and has his best artistic idea yet coming from calm, instead of desperation like his past business life, which makes him smile.
sanitized board room, sanitized people talking about "stimulating imaginations" when doing precise opposite. attempting to narrow thoughts by placing this supposed "man" who there are a million of within a neartly defined box, and Don seeing the essence of his beloved industry boiled down to a horrific science, while he begins feeling like the very man being described in the presentation before him. because he's now one of many totally indistinguishable creative directors, nameless, faceless, and being trapped inside a behemoth corporation without a soul. he's inside the boxed lunch "with his name on it," with a laminated sterile set of facts that are marketing to a simplified caricature robbed of any inner life. he sees the plane flying above and chooses that route instead, leaving his ubiquitous can of coke untouched, he's flies away. the one place he could express himself at least occasionally in fleeting moments of connective brilliance disguised as an ad pitch -- that world is now gone. he's a living relic of a time abruptly and unceremoniously past.
Sean H that was great! Please do the TH-cam community a favor and keep writing your analysis of shows (especially mad men!).
nailed it
Sean H well said
watch office space.
Yet, tragically, he ultimately returns to McCann Erickson to bring them the winning idea for Coca-Cola. He's trapped in this life forever, unable to escape the vacuum that is corporate America, realizing that the "American Dream" is a hoax - as much a lie as his own name. The handsome Don Draper has become synonymous with the deeply flawed, beautiful land of America.
I love Ted's expression at the end. It wasn't a judgmental scoff as some might think. But more of a "go find what works for you Don. Good for you." Almost like he's proud of him.
Amazing what a good actor can do with no lines at all. I love this show.
3 expressions, the way Ted always felt, hey wait a minute, not my problem anymore, then a knowing admiration
like "now that's the Don I always admire" too
Always respected Ted and he was awesome with Don, he knows he could never tame Don only learn from him.
Envious even. Too scared to have done it himself.
Ted was already ready for the 70's
Roger too!
His name alone screams 70s.
It was mid 70s at this point I think
@@jackwilliam5341 No, it was 1970.
@@jackwilliam5341 no, the show stopped in 1970.
The scene where he looks out the window to see a plane.
How many of us when we were in school, when we were fortunate enough to sit by a window, looking up to watch a plane/contrail go by, thinking about where it was going, or wishing we were on it looking down upon the ground, while not paying attention to the teacher?
I remember my classmates (and me) watching the dump truck empty the dumpsters outside the classroom window. Our teacher wasn't impressed.
I did it and I still do it. Dreaming of the freedom that can await me. Unfortunately unlike Draper I can’t just walk out of the school and disappear
I still do it. Even when I see busses that would take me halfway across the country and more I’m just like 🤔
I remember when this aired people were saying it was a sign Don would become DB Cooper / Dan Cooper
When I was experiencing hell at home, I called my uncle and he told me that the world is more than what happens in my house. After the call I looked up at a plane just like this, knowing I’d soon be able to live with other relatives in a better environment.
In this scene, surrounded by like-minded lookalikes and soulless sophisticates, Don realizes he’s become what he’s been selling this whole time:
A product.
This scene resonates with me so much in my work life. The corporate uniform, the canned laughter; the everything.
All the canned terminology and predictable BS as well. I got out of a successful sales career because I couldn't take the fakeness any longer. If I heard the phrase "low hanging fruit" on more time I was going to blow a gasket and cause someone bodily injury....lol
@@carbonking53 Or "robust" aaarrrghhh!
Glad I left that world 5 years ago
@@carbonking53i left it too
I like that he takes his sandwich with him.
nightflight83 yeah, that was a nice touch. Means I ain't coming back, bitches!
Love that touch. Might as well grab a sandwich.
nightflight83 I might as well take the “ take out” lunch, to at least get something out of this pointless meeting
System is designed to serve me, not the other way around.
you was there, dude, you was the plane
No reason to waste a free meal.
Mad Men must have at least a dozen best scenes of all time. Cooper’s last dance, the carousel pitch, “New York is a marvelous machine, wound tight”, Lane firing everyone, Peggy & Don all-nighter and he learns of Anna’s passing, Rodger bribing Peggy, Betty finding out his secret past, Lane & Pete fight.. Connie Hilton... anything Cooper is in.. man, it goes on and on and on. It’s gotta be the greatest show of all time.
Brilliant show, arguably the most well-written show ever
It is modern Shakespeare
Roger defending Don when the partners were trying to get rid of him.
Lane and Pete fight is the best
I completely agree--I'd specifically add the scene with Connie Hilton where Don hops over the bar at the country club and makes them a couple cocktails, even though Don has no idea who he is.
Nothing more obnoxious than a well-heeled executive giving a talk about the "average" man.
There's one thing more obnoxious than a well-heeled executive giving a talk about the "average" man: a well-heeled politician giving a talk about the "average" man.
@@JulianAlpsNews well said!!
@Jericho Kilmanja Precisely.
Zolensky Auto Parts
Yes there is, a woman talking at all.
Don aspire to what any great man does. To live life on his own terms.
PrincepsComitatus But that's not what transformed him. His transformation started when he was broken down to nothing, when he was forced to atone for his egotism. His journey was only complete when he connected, when he brushed souls against a man whose life was radically different from his own. Don found himself by confronting his failure and powerlessness, and by learning that in reality, we never do anything meaningful alone.
@@markofsaltburn look at who you're trying to convince lol. The nuance is going to be lost on a wanna-be macho Roman Empire fanboi. He's part of the Trump-supporting school of madmen fans who see superficial strength of will and confidence and uncritically admire it, as they do with Donald.
Only way to live
Your comment is the only one I read who got it. He has seen and done that, and he is not impr at all. He just wants to live now.
And sell Coca Cola. This show was sweet poison just like the products they sold on it.
Never was much of a Ted fan but he nailed that last look at the end there as he sees Don leave. If I remember correctly, that was his last scene on the series.
It is not, he's in the finale. But it is a pretty poignant moment.
A look that says he knows exactly who Don is and what he's doing. He gets it.
admiration.
Ted was a legend. He was basically Don without the asshole tendencies and baggage. Don had his major plus points too don't get me wrong
@@ronoccc Ted doesn't have the baggage, but he also lacks the brilliance. He's a perfectly serviceable ad man, but Don is lightning in a bottle.
It's fitting that Draper, realizing that if he is to make a difference in a place like mccann, he has to do something to elevate he and his position beyond the mcdrones he is now surrounded with. Retaining his dignity he quietly slips out of the meeting and hits the american highway, chasing ghosts and reliving his youth, only to end up in some new age hippy retreat for broken souls, of which he has become one. Only to return to mcann as the man who writes The Coke ad. Like any conquering hero, he has to get down before he gets back up. After all this is Don Draper we are talking about.
Hi Moo01100 - yeah - you get it and tell it well. It seems that not many people realise that the last scene of the last episode is the fact that Don sees that the new age Hippy scene is just as vacuous as anything else and goes back to Macann and writes the epic Coke Ad.
@@georgebennett3197 But how do you know he was the one who did the Coke ad?
@@peanutjelly727 I don't - it's fiction - but that's what the writers are suggesting.
@@peanutjelly727 The real life ad was a McCann-Erickson creation, but several things in the final episodes point to that. Coca-Cola is mentioned as this sort of holy grail of accounts as soon as the SC&P crew is moved into McCann, and you can see Coke gradually gaining a larger presence as a set piece. In this scene, for example, everyone at that table is offered one. Later on, when Don hits the road, the Coca-Cola machine at the motel where Don stays is also very conspicuously placed, especially since the owner asks Don to fix it. Don't forget that during his final phone call with Peggy, one of the ways she tries to entice him is by asking him if he isn't excited by the prospect of working on the Coke account. Peggy also reassures him that McCann would welcome him back with open arms; after his wording suggests to her that he might try self-harm or suicide, he deliberately ends the phone call with a "see you soon". If you recall, the two of them have a conversation in an earlier episode in which Peggy mentions her ambition to create something of lasting value, which Don is sceptical of due to the ephemeral and very artificial nature of advertising.
As far as the ad itself goes, its placement is extremely specific: seconds after we see Don meditating and a smile coming to his face accompanied by a bell indicating a light bulb moment. The fact that some of the characters he meets resemble the people in the ad seems to be a very conscious choice for the writers, and the show is known for its attention to detail. Both Weiner and Jon Hamm interpret the ending in this way--Don's reconciliation with who he really is, an ad man of exceptional talent. This moment of clarity gives him the idea for the ad, which can be interpreted cynically as him commodifying the sense of communion at the heart of the hippie movement, but there's also a kernel of sincerity to it.
Coke cans everywhere. Red and white painting on the wall. The big idea is working its magic.
Best scene of all time is a bit steep. But I loved everything about it. The guy speaking is essentially Don in season one. And you see him creating a fake scenerio, a fake guy, a fake life, to drum up genuine emotion. All for the purposes of selling beer. You can tell Don is having an out of body experience watching this guy, and it's the catalyst to pushes him to leave to find what he should have found years ago: The free things that are the key to true happiness.
Teds face was great too. He knew Don wasn't coming back. And there was this look of admiration that Don was going to drop it all to do what he needed to do.
Adam Robinette Great insight! I just saw the episode "Marriage of Figaro" and the guy perfectly describes Don in that episode.
Don sees it as the commoditization of what he created. It became impersonal -- it's a research guy giving the presentation, not a creative. Don hated statistics because there was no human insight to them. He's seeing the technique he used to employ so well become appropriated and corrupted by the same kinds of guys who could never understand him ten years ago. It's not special anymore. He has no interest in being a part of that, so he walks out.
Adam Robinette But Don eventually came back since he created that Coca Cola ad
@@paulbeen459 But why is everyone so sure that Don created the Coke ad? Why are people so sure that he even went back to advertising at all? Yes, there were parallels between his experience at the retreat and the ad itself, but why would he go back to living in an identity that wasn't his? Wasn't that the cause of his inner turmoil in the first place? He was using Don Draper's identity to run away from his past. Wouldn't his ultimate goal be self-acceptance in his true identity as Dick Whitman?
@@peanutjelly727 You should look at analysis videos. He did this ad because he found peace in his inner self and came back to his old way of life, but apprehended it in a different way
Bertram Cooper: "A man is whatever room he's in right now." Don looked around and knew he wasn't in the right room.
I always loved the underlying joke of this scene "I'm going to describe to you a man of very specific qualities"
*Proceeds to give the describe the most generic everyman description*
And, you know, of Don in a way. But not Dick Whitman.
2:51 Ted's thinking "damn, this show just keeps getting better!"
I love this scene so much, particularly the shot of the plane. It really puts things in perspective sometimes when you just watch a plane fly by.
Don thinks, how does the plane stay up when it flies so slowly?
Reminds me of Don seeing the fly on the ceiling in the pilot episode which everyone thought had some symbolic meaning but I believe Matthew Weiner said he put in there because it’s familiar and everyone has done that in an office. Same here for this airplane I would surmise.
He misses that TWA flight attendant
Ted knew. Ted knew this was it for Don, and he was happy for him. Amazing what a look and a smirk can convey.
Ted knew that Don would be back... Don always comes back & always has some world class award winning idea when he does, hence why Don is always accepted back when he shows up after running away. Ted is impressed with how quickly Don doesn't even pretend to change/fit in & just automatically stays true to his nature and modus operandi... when Don is uncomfortable or unhappy then Don always runs away, Ted is excited to see what Don comes back with
I think this scene reverts back to the lipstick meeting. Don doesn't want to be one of just the regular creative he wants to feel special to be the guy and that's what that plane illustrates freedom from fear happiness
And also the first conversation of the series with his server, the Old Gold Man… “I can’t get you to try any other cigarette, like my Lucky’s”. “Ohhh no” he says,
Bingo! It is the second take on the lipstick scene that Don headlines. And that is what gets right to him! He’s in a commodity business where you can’t fantasize the customer’s uniqueness.
I like that the guy doesn't even stop talking and nobody turn around to see him as he leaves. The whole room seems dead disguised as focused.
One guy looked up
I love all the different interpretations people have of this scene, keep them coming
Don trolling hippies, th-cam.com/video/KoZDujXuDY0/w-d-xo.html
The research guy's speech sounds like George Costanza: "The sea was angry that day, my friends."
"Like an old man trying to send soup back in a deli."
LOL
Best comment on hete
Love that happy, good for him look that Ted gives at the end of the scene.
it's hilarious how Ted goes from extremely unhappy with the duties and responsibilities of being a partner to loving life at the end of the series when just being a creative is his only responsibility.
This was a great scene but nothing beats the entire episode, "The Suitcase".
agree. that episode is tv perfection
The scene where Don returns to New York from California, and pitches the famous Coke ad, exists only in our imaginations. But we can picture it. What a great bookend that pitch scene makes when paired with this one shown here.
there is nothing worse than a new creative director joining an agency and on his first day, attends a meeting only to discover, he is in a meeting with a dozen other creative directors.
McCann-Eriksen essentially received Peggy, Stan, Ted, and Roger.
Joan moves on to become a Commercial Producer.
Pete leaves for far greener pastures.
Don breezes out to find his true self he's been hiding his entire adult life.
It's funny how McCann chased them for so long, but did not understand who they were dealing with.
but Don then returns with the greatest ad in history
I think about this scene almost every day at work
I can't help but think back to Don's conversation with Ken Cosgrove after Ken's firing. Ken was sitting in the phone booth afterwords when Don came up to him. Ken told Don it was a sign that he was fired. "The life not lived," as Ken said and that his firing was a sign. When Don looks out the window to the airplane, I think he remembers Ken's words and then walks out. Wish I could do that.
But then Cosgrove takes a job for a major McCann client, for the sole purpose of walking all over Pete Campbell and Roger Sterling, as payback for firing him.
well, you can, and the wishing is part of the illusion you're selling to yourself that you can't. Once you truly see that, the pain of not doing will be greater than the fear of doing, and doing will finally occur to you as the easier & obvious path.
I need to rewatch this series. This is giving me chills.
The real greatness of this show was not just in the stars, but also the secondary characters, like Ted, or Duck, or Freddy, or Megan. They had depth, they were real, and they added so much to the show. Man, I miss this show!
@Duty and Accountability Media Exactly. Don was the definition of a narcissist.
Every actor role had depth. There were no incidental characters.
how I wish I could do that in my company's sanitized boardroom meeting and just "walk away" and drive to the west coast. :)
“I always wonder why birds choose to stay in the same place when they can fly anywhere on the earth, then I ask myself the same question.”
Blue Forrester you can. I make 80,000 bucks per year. Its not great money and not bad. I always looked out the window though and I was never told how to think, how I should react. I'm 36 years old and I also have not answered to a supervisor in over 10 years. It feels glorious 🙂
It's not easy to live the way I do. Most humans don't have the balls. I never cared if I had to stay at a homeless shelter a day or two. I can do things mentally, that most people won't. Therefore I work for no one. Not a single boss. Now my life is easier at 36 years of age, because I got tougher over the stretch of things. Come and go as I please and pay my bills with a descent salary...
You can. It's YOU making the choice not to do just that. YOU.
@@rds990 Well at this point Don had millions of dollars coming his way anyway
lol I can't get over Ted's face at the end...like "yep, that's my Donny. the finest asshole I've ever met"
The way I saw this scene was the guy was describing Don too well, cause the more we think we’re different from the people around us, the more we really are just the same. Don looks at the plane as a sort of escape, wants to feel like he matters above the grand scheme of life. When Don escapes and gets to California he hugs the guy while they’re both crying even though the guy Don is hugging is the complete opposite of Don, but on the inside they faced the same issue, the inability to love themselves. When Don cracks a smile while he’s meditating it reminds of the scene where Ana Draper is reading him based on the tarot cards and says “The only thing keeping you from being happy is the belief that you are alone”. That’s when Don realizes no matter how tragic his life was, everybody eventually deals with the same things, in the matter of life and death. It’s where he gets the idea for the coke commercial and even though I don’t think it cures him entirely, I think he’s better off learning what his place in the universe really was. Don has always been good at creating the perfect ideal life in his ads, always channeling his inner Dick Whitman for moments of vulnerability, but he always turned in Don Draper for all the relationships that really mattered to him. The end of the series is just him realizing he’s going lose everyone he’s ever loved and they have no idea who he really is and the only way he can connect to them with is to be honest. Throughout the series he’s been losing the frame of Don Draper slowly and slowly because the women he cared for never really knew Dick Whitman, they’ve only seen Don Draper. That’s when he calls the three most important women in his life, Betty, Peggy and Sally, and has an honest conversation with them. Throughout the series you can also notice that when Dons back is against the wall with Betty, he tries explain his past and she doesn’t care anymore. Then he meets Dr. Faye and he tells her about his past to ease his guilt and his mind when the feds were doing background checks on him for the business Pete brought in. Then with Megan she knows everything in the beginning of season 5 already and we only know this through their conversations. Dons inability to let people see the real him is what keeps him from being happy, because he subconsciously chooses to be alone, chooses to be the strong silent type which brings people closer but never too close. The last season when he meets the waitress, he treats her with his most vulnerable side, and she still leaves, causing him to go look for her to understand why she didn’t like him being Dick Whitman. You can tell the frustration Don goes through is needed for him to reach a level of enlightenment. He just needed a second to breathe and reflect, theres no going back and he’s reached a comfortable level in his life and chooses to be okay. Most of the show is about how the characters have a lot but it’s never enough, they always look at each other (most of the time at Don) as the grass is always greener on the other side. I think when Don realizes he needs to stop chasing and just start living is when he realizes what true peace and happiness can really mean for him. I’ve watched Mad men about 3 times and I safely say it’s the show that’s has the biggest impact on how I view things in my life now. This, the sopranos and the wire are incredible shows.
You said it bro. Mad Men, The Soprano's, The Wire and lets not forget Breaking Bad. Respectfully.
The fact that Don had the presence of mind to remember to take the Box Lunch shows he was in fact " Paying Attention" to what was important in that room which was The Voice in His Soul telling him to Get Up and Go
I'm here because the Sopranos because Matt Weiner is an awesome writer going to check the series out sorry I'm nine years late lol
As a sales manager for PepsiCo and Kraft I sat through hundreds of these meetings in 30 years!
Once a VP suggested that our sales could be stimulated by a “stack in the back” meaning extra inventory in the back room!
The sheep erupted into applause, I am so sorry I didn’t have Don’s courage and walk out or better yet, jump up on the conference table and take a shit!!
Such a short term, unsustainable strategy. Quite disappointing. Looks like this is what Estee Lauder literally just did
I agree just saw Mad Men the 5th time around & this time i totally got S7....& this moment I knw what it means deep in my soul.
Lol Ted's face at the end "Thats my boi"
He's like: "I knew he was gonna do that."
I did like the scene...I always wondered what was in that box lunch, I loved that Don didn't just walk out he made sure they were going to feed him too!
Thank you. I have been searching all over on TH-cam to see this again and finally I can. One of the best scenes of the entire show, sad and beautiful when Don looks out the window and wants to escape from that room, from the top of the corporate advertising latter where they've reducing so many lives to an idea of a market of a man. Even after this airing of this episode, as of last month, Miller, even as big as they were, were just acquired by AB InBev (the merger after the Dutch company InBev acquired Anheuser-Busch) for $104 billion in the largest beer corporate acquisition ever. It's an endless subsuming of smaller companies by larger and fewer ones. Sad state of affairs, but I hope it will reverse if people awake and use the internet to its full potential. Anyway, thank you for uploading this clip; it's the only upload on TH-cam and I'm glad that you made the time to put it up.
The good news is that people who appreciate good beer have responded by supporting more local breweries and brands. That's what I've seen lately in stores where I buy beer and at my favorite pubs. In fact, InBev's distributors have been raising their prices across the board from retail to restaurants and those places have responded by diversifying their offerings to customers instead of just raising prices and maintaining the status quo.
Michael P. Reid What? You are delusional and indoctrinated. This show is an indictment against consumerism and you write as if it can be pure and holy.
This show is absolutely not an indictment against consumerism. Watch an interview with Matthew Weiner sometime.
People making money, buying and selling... soo sad!!
Miller was not bought by AB InBev, but whatever you have to say to make yourself sound smart.
Did you notice that most of them just wore white dress shirts while Don wore the grey suit?
the man in the grey flannel suit?
That's all Janie Bryant, the costume designer. He is dressed to separate himself from the other ad men. Check out the Mad Style blog from Tom and Lorenzo, it gives some great insight into the costume designer and how it compels the story.
The declining of civilization...
You may notice too, that Don's pen is red while the others are black
@@billyaugust Don Drinks " Old Fashions " for a reason. Just like his style from season 1 with the grey flannel suit never changes and his approach to advertising stays true to his personality. He was never ready to change much like when he turns the Beatles album off or most interactions with Meagan.
At the end, Ted was like “there he goes”
Why Don takes his boxed lunch with him is an important element few recognize.
That is how you handle a boring meeting
Only a man in Don's caliber can walk out like that with the sandwich.
I don't think the board room is sterile or the pitch is sanitized. It's not even an especially formulaic approach, at least not any more so than Don would have taken. In fact, it sounds a lot like a pitch Don would have given if SCDP had given the opportunity to pitch for this business. I think Don comes in that room already feeling lost. He's already lost almost everything dear to him, except maybe Sally, but things will never be the same there either, and his ability to do great work. He's had that almost the entire length of the show and he's been complimented on it and reminded it of it pretty constantly. And then he realizes that supposedly your greatest skill and accomplishment is not nearly the thing he thought it was. They at McCann agree he's great, but it doesn't really matter. It's a machine that has a shiny new little part, and it just keeps going.
I think is just kind of the straw that broke the camel's back. Don realizes that he's a broken man and no amount of work is going to fix his true problems, and so he leaves.
Anyway, I just finished the show last night, it was great.
I love how Don takes his lunch.
There was a scene in The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit where Gregory Peck looks out of the office building and sees a plane in the distance.
Peggy Olson and then Don when he pitched it, said it best. "...none wants to be one of a hundred in a box".
Such an incredible scene!!! When the one guy asks Chaugh if he's there to bring "them up a notch.." I still get goose bumps.. man so good and such a good ending to the series.
Just noticed that the plane crossing the tip of the Empire State Building forms a Cross. Mad Men is the most genius show ever created.
Trevor Locke foreshadowing his soon to be born again moment.
Don should have said : "Don't worry guys, I may be gone a few weeks but I'll be back with the best ad of all time".
That look on Teds face always gets me. That’s the look of “wish I kinda had the guts to go with ya bro...but go get ‘em”.
I love reading all the different takes in this thread that could all be 100% correct. It just proves the many layers of very consistent quality writing in this show.
It seems to me that Don has spent the better part of his life building himself into that man who is the epitome of the American Dream-the kind of man who they’d be selling this beer to. Don has analyzed and collected data on just the sort of man who had all of what America promised-appearing educated, but pulling himself up by his bootstraps, 2.5 kids, beautiful wife, dogs(they don’t talk) a picket fence,top of his game at work, yet somehow Don sees himself as exceptional, different from the crowd. Of course, the name on the box of many boxes is a glaring reminder that he is just one of many in that room. But Don’s persona that he created is above it all-he is like that plane flying above the filth and ordinariness of everyone else’s mundane life.
Don knows better than anyone that the American Dream, much like Don, is a sham. What you have to do to get there decays and rots your soul. Don is the king of shit mountain. But he can reinvent himself if he wants. That’s what he’s good at. He isn’t the same sandwich in every box. He is whatever product he wants to be. So, this approach is never going to be for him.
If you're the smartest person in the room, you're in the wrong room.
When this show was on, Millenials despised Don -now they've begun to understand him.
I know this feeling too well, just another nameless faceless suit, a one-of-1,000. Thank God Don left. A true creative
This show was written 15 years ago but it describes how corporations describe their customers to the T, just behaviours broken down into boxes you can check off
Don was über independent and creative... He hated the formulaic approach the big company was taking....the airplane represented what Don considered himself to be...high flying, unrestrained and in control. .
bza069 But Don only found himself by losing control, by realising that we can only become whole again by cultivating our relational capacity, by learning that we are made complete only with love. Mad Men is a critique of the myth of rugged American individualism, not an uncritical celebration of it. Tony Soprano never fully embraced this and he duly perished, Walter White forgot this and everyone in his life had to pay, Don Draper accepted this and rose to greater heights then he ever could have imagined.
masterpiece scene of art and meaning.
Two worlds collides in a moment of trouth (cit.)
Imagine them doing the Bud Light account!
Absolutely phenomenal scene in the context of the whole show.
He'd been there, he'd done that. Don was an "ideas man", who loved the rush and excitement of a big idea. He was now reduced to being a small cog in a big company on a mindless ad campaign for beer. It's a wonder he didn't run, instead of walk out of that conference room full of drones.
Reminds me of the belle Jolie lipstick campaign, “i don’t think anyone wants to be one of a hundred in a box.”
I worked for an international architecture firm for years.
I don't know how many "Box Lunch" group design meetings I had to sit thru.
I would love to have the guts that Hamm's character had....and just walk out.
(And take my lunch with me...)
David Fisher lol when you have fuck you money you could
It's not so much the guts as it is the money, as lifelong financial security allows you to do things you can't do when you're just getting by. But yeah, I've been there, too (without the $/power to walk out).
Notice Don and Bill Phillips never shake hands. Both disliked each other on site.
When Don is looking out the window at the plane flying over the skyscraper, that scene is a direct hommage to the scene in the movie, The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit. The movie starred, Gregory Peck.
Thanks
Don can't function like the individual that he is in that environment. Some look at that boardroom and see comfort with the big machine. Ted saw it as a place where he could just be an idea man and not have all the pressure and relax. Don saw it as a prison that cramps his style and stifles his creativity. It's why he turned them down twice earlier in the series, and then staged a coup to actually start another company rather then go work for them.
Ted's expression at the end is so good. It goes from "what the hell is he doing" to "of course that's what he's doing", from surprise/shock to admiration. Ted doesn't really like his job, but is willing to trade that for the safety of McCann. He admires Don's IDGAF attitude and his willingness to throw it all away if he can't be himself...even if that means giving up what most people in that industry would consider a dream job.
I always saw the moment with Ted was more about how Ted saw Don as always trying to personally undermine him when they merged companies like when they had two juice companies or Don was late to his meetings. To Ted those always seemed to be personally directed towards himself.
I think the moment he saw Don walk out during the meeting and do exactly the same things he used to do to him, he realized and felt a sense of relief that it was never personal between him and Don. Don was always treating him like he treats everyone. It was just who Don was.
He took the boxed lunch with him on the way out.
I love Ted’s smirk seemingly thinking, “lucky bastard…I wish I could be like that and just get up and leave”
nah, at this point Ted was desperately wishing for less stress and in this environment he gets what he wants
I love how he gets absent and disconnects and abandons the reality that's not his.
I love that Don took his box lunch...might as well get something of value from this meeting...
Or maybe it's a sign that he may hate advertising, but it has been the only thing that has fed him his whole adult life, literally and figuratively.
I always felt this scene was about Don's sobering realization that he's not unique. The man giving the presentation is telling story much in the way Don would have and -- back in the day -- it would have seemed a fresh approach. But now Don sees it's all smoke and mirrors. It's all just noise. And it doesn't last long or resonate. Unless .... you come up with a catchy ad for Coke, that is.
Eric Nenninger, the actor who plays Bill, absolutely nails this monologue.
I don’t know why exactly….. but the shot at 2:06 …. I just keep coming back to it. They’re can be many explanations to the deeper meaning of it… some true, whether there is a “right” answer or not… but just the way that moment makes me feel, with the music and the shot and the tone, context not necessarily even needed in that span of a few seconds, I just FEEL something that I cannot explain. And I truly appreciate that feeling even though I admittedly don’t fully understand it. Mad Men does it better than any show I have ever encountered. I hope someone feels what I feel and what an accomplishment by the people who worked on this.
This scene builds up off of so much of Ted and Don's interactions and comments about one another and from those around them. Ted is constantly in Don's rearview, as said by Don specifically at one point and shown in Ted's aspirations at one day outdoing him. One of the major crisis that occurs for Don and co. is back in Season 3 when they sell the firm to PPL and Don refuses to sign the contract that they try to box him into. Much to the consternation of everyone around him. He knows that people want him, and he's not willing to tie himself down. This is reflected in his private life and his business. When Don shows up to the meeting, his surprise isn't at the number of people around him, it's him knowing that they don't want him. He's just another emissary in the tie. Ted meanwhile tries to reassure the employee from Miller by agreeing that the hackneyed promise he's been told by everyone else in the room from every different agency is also accurate with them as well. It's unoriginal. Uninventive. It's Ted. When Don looks at the plane and decides to leave, he's doing so because he knows no one will notice nor care. Ted meanwhile just smiles to himself because at the end of the day, Pete was right. He's just another sheep. He's happy to go with the crowd and keep his head down. He's not creative. He's not Don Draper, and when he tried to be it ruined his life.
Best interpretation
Prescient Coke cans on the conference room table. “I’d like to teach the world to sing…”
Those of us who have worked in companies....large companies especially....haven't we all felt this detached at one time or another?
Yeah, like in half the stupid company meetings, annual reviews, social media photo ops, etc.
Instead of the usual take which is to speak on Don's need to stand out, be an individual, etc. I think it would also be cool to compare this scene with one of the final scenes when Don is in the therapy circle with the man who doesn't feel heard. In this room, in advertising, they're describing 'a man that everyone knows' almost like a statistic, they look at where he lives and other mundane facts, but they don't care about that man as a person. In the therapy scene, that man has a nice car, couple kids, wife, the American dream, but alas he doesn't feel heard or recognized. To the advertisers in the conference room he's just another type that can be reduced via some stats and that's all that matters, but he's more than that and is complicated and, most importantly, he wants to be heard. I think comparing the scenes you see how these advertising agencies cater to consumers in such a robotic and impersonal way. Would add to the plethora of reasons why Don resonates with him so much because his whole career was based on only understanding these statistical facts of the man instead of listening to him as another complex human.
"I'm going to describe to you a man with very specific qualities"
*begins by listing off a bunch of states the guy* might *live in*
After this meeting they invented Miller Lite.
I love Mad Men, but no, the best scene is Don’s Hershey or Carousel presentations
Dwarfer12 1 agree
@@octaviosalinas6810 How about when he is in the California party with Roger and sees the dead soldier without an arm, deep shit.
Naaaa, Dow Chemicals pitch with Roger was the best one
The carousel scene was the best!! It brought tears in my eyes because how real and true it is.
When Don says, "This is how it works: I give you money and you give me ideas" and Peggy says "But you never say 'thank you'" and Don tells her "That's what the money is for !!!"
Ted's the smart one, they'll all remember the guy with the mustache and sideburns.
I always loved how Don Draper looked more and more like a man out of time as the series went on. From the beginning, he looked like a marketing committee's idealization of the perfect man in the 50s and early 60s, and he never changed. The world changed around him, and he was left behind.
Totally. And a perfect metaphor that his drink order is an "old fashioned." That's what he is.
Matthew Weiner has said before that Don is not "past his prime". He's not a "relic", or a "dinosaur". Don is "timeless". Don is the kind of creative director at an ad agency who, according to Miss Blankenship, is "always asleep" inside his office. He throws away the cigarette research in the first episode, because the "death wish" doesn't get to the root of people's desires. The moment he sees the plane outside the window, visions of Rachel Menken ("you missed your flight") come pouring back. Shirt-sleeves operations like the machine of McCann, with boxed lunches and tin-can researchers flogging *low calorie beer, cannot get to the heart of what people really want. What is a plane? A plane is like a carousel. It isn't "a space ship". It "takes us to a place where we ache to go again". "Around and around, and back home again, to a place where we know we are loved". After his Magical Mystery Tour, Don ends up in a white shirt, enlightened. He goes back and makes the greatest ad, ever. He walks out of this meeting because these types don't get it. Don Draper is timeless.
Besides showing that Don is just a cog in a machine and no longer a "big shot", the most devastating line is said by Ted when he basicallty confirms the pep talk given to Don earlier that made him feel important was given to everyone "take us up a notch"
I realized something completely new about this scene: The blonde man talking. This could easily be a Don pitch. It's a variation of a thousand similar pitches he's given. But the delivery is inferior. Don realized that good and "good enough" is indistinguishable in this environment. That's when he looks out the window and plots his escape.
The end of the American individualism.
No one wants to be one of a hundred in a box
I've been in so many meetings like this. I've gazed out of the window and wished I had huge dragon wings sprouting out of me to just fly away from all the bullshit.
I show this to my research class as an example of how to make a research presentation interesting. Such great storytelling.
this is my all series favourite scene. then "the best things in Life are free". then Sterling on acid.
When Don sees that plane fly past I was almost convinced of the hype at the time that he would be revealed to be D.B. Cooper in the final episodes..
The funniest part is when he grabs a sammich to go!!
Great scene but best ever? Not even close. Not even the best in that season, let alone the entire series.
I don't take any post literally especially if it's clickbait !! good scene but not even really the best of it's ILK!! ENJOY the HOLIDAYS !!