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The role of a woman was vastly different in the 1960’s than of today. Most women were expected to pursue lives as housewives instead of starting a career. The boredom and isolation of being at home affected women greatly which is represented with Betty Draper in Mad Men. The final episode, “The Wheel,” features a scene where Betty finds Helen’s son, Glenn in the parking lot. As one of the lowest points for Betty in the season, the music is slow and eerie as Betty pulls up and approaches Glenn who is alone in a car. She seeks comfort and ends up crying while talking to the child. This scene demonstrates just how alone and unhappy Betty is with her life when she goes as far as to look for any sympathy and comfort in the innocence of a child.

At this point Betty has little strength left; she constantly keeps up a cheerful appearance but is hurting inside because she realizes she has no one she can talk to. Glenn seems like a suitable companion not only because he once appreciated her beauty in a way Don doesn’t, but also because he’s a child and had not yet been corrupted. Throughout the season we witness Betty’s constant attempts to catch Don’s attention in any way. She is constantly keeping up the ideal image she believes Don would want for his wife whether it be how she keeps company and her demeanor or with her personal appearance. When Betty goes to watch Glenn and he admires her beauty, Betty not only tolerates it but is maybe even a bit flattered because she is getting the attention she never gets. It is common for many housewives, who had little to take pride in other than their appearance, to feel accomplished and justified when they felt they were desired by men. In this case, it slightly more disturbing as the admirer is not a man but a child, further putting Betty’s judgment into question.

As the scene continues, the unusual pair continues to talk and the discomfort from the peculiar conversation is felt and emphasized with a shot and reverse shot pattern. It focuses on the expression of uneasiness on Glenn’s face and the desperation of Betty’s. When Glenn refers to his youth Betty does not care because she doesn’t believe in the wisdom of adults saying, “Adults don’t know anything." Betty is drawing on the innocence of children. Her childhood, having not been tainted like Don's, is a memory of simpler times before the temptation of greed and cruelty reached most. Remembering this, Betty wants one just person, even if he is nine-years-old, to tell her everything will be okay.

At the end of the scene, Betty leaves immediately reverting back to her act of politeness having been somewhat rejected by the one person she tried to open up to when Glenn hints that his mother may be coming back. The quick shift from vulnerability to politeness seems drastic, yet it is only because for once the feelings Betty has are noticeably hidden. Once again Betty is left disappointed and lost, yet this facade is one she puts on on a daily basis. From the way she reverted back to it when leaving, one can see it is one that she will continue to portray. Betty is the portrait of the lonely and uninspired housewife revealing the frustrations many of the women like her felt in the days of Mad Men. Like Betty, it’s unfortunate that most of these women simply wiped their tears and continued on further intensifying their discontent.

A Place Where We Ache to Go Again

One of the most significant scenes in the first season of AMC’s Mad Men is when Don presents the ad campaign for Kodak’s wheel called ‘The Carousel.” Don uses the wheel to show pictures of his family in order to market the machine as something that evokes nostalgia within a consumer. This moment presents Don with a deeply sentimental and emotional reaction as he sees pictures of his kids and him and Betty as a happy couple. This experience gives Don his own nostalgia for happier times and suggests he may feel guilt or remorse for his actions but reminds him what he values in his life- his family.

Don says that nostalgia literally means “The pain from an old wound.” This relates to Don’s current situation as he feels pain when looking at these pictures and seeing how happy his life once was and how now his marriage is failing. Don goes on to explain how nostalgia is more than memory because it is felt in the heart. This proves that these pictures did have meaning to them and were not just the Drapers’ pretending to be happy. In comparison to the family portrait taken earlier in the season, the pictures in the slideshow seem much more genuine and capture true happiness. In The Way We Never Were, author Stephanie Coontz references Christopher Lache when he suggests that many people tend to be overcome “by fantasies even more than by things” (176). These pictures provide more meaning than any other material thing Don owns. The idea of a perfect family seemed like a fantasy to Don, who grew up in a broken family, but these pictures remind him that he did, at one point, have a close, happy family. However over time Don and Betty have drifted apart due to their lack of communication and commitment. This fantasy of a perfect family is not so unrealistic and suggests that Don may be remorseful towards this nostalgia that he longs to go back to.

Throughout Don’s speech the idea of aches and wounds is emphasized to demonstrate Don’s longing for those times of happiness. He states that the wheel “takes us to a place where we ache to go again.” This speech is almost as if a veil is being lifted off Don and the viewer gains insight into his heartache. There is a slight sense of regret in his nostalgia, as it seems as if he is questioning his affairs and the distance he created within his family. Don also brings up how the wheel lets you travel like a child (hence the use of the word carousel) and lets you go home to a place where you know you are loved. The idea of childhood is significant because it is something so innocent and pure, untainted by adulthood. Youth is a time when thoughts and dreams are joyful and simple. Don came from a troubled childhood, and the only time when he was truly happy in life was the early stages of his marriage and when he is with his kids because this when he experienced love. Don aches to feel this love again and has a strong desire to go back as if on a carousel.

The setting of this revelation is important because creator Matthew Weiner said that advertising is “a great way to talk about the image we have of ourselves, versus who we really are” (Witchel). This scene embodies Don’s heartache while presenting his nostalgia in the form of his work to illustrate the man he once was and the man he has become. The wheel ads depict a man who loves his family and is truly happy. While Don still loves his family dearly, he has not made the best decisions when it comes to keeping his marriage stable. This moment allows Don to self-reflect on his actions by giving us insight into his guarded persona. Don deeply cares about his family, his kids above all else, and truly displays nostalgia as he aches and longs to go back to a time full of happiness, something missing from his current life.

References

Coontz, Stephanie. The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap. New York, NY: Basic, 1992. Print.

Witchel, Alex. "'Mad Men' Has Its Moment." The New York Times 22 June 2008. Print.

Don Draper: Sociopath? Or Just a Man?

Every episode, the writers of Mad Men make the audience love a villain. They cheer on as protagonist Don Draper cheats on his wife, mistreats his family and is rude to his subordinates, superiors and friends. He seems to coast through life with no empathy or strong emotions, a sociopath in his own right. However, Askmen.com editor James Bassil argues that Don is the epitome of traditional masculine traits. Don was voted ‘most inspirational man’ in a poll conducted by askmen.com, what does this say about men today? Are they really looking up to a sociopath or is Don really the ‘prefect’ man?

In the first season’s finale, Don is about to pitch his carousel idea to Kodak. Using pictures of his wife and children, he tugs at Kodak and the audience’s heartstrings. He talks of nostalgia, wanting to go back to a happier time, implying that his family once fulfilled him and made him happy. Between the deafening clicks of the slides changing and the candid pictures of Don, Betty and the kids, we flash to Don’s face as he speaks. Underneath his haughty default demeanor is, undeniably, emotion threatening to spill out.

It’s not hard to see how Don can be interpreted as a sociopath; he seems to lack empathy for everybody and only does things to help himself. But is he the epitome of masculinity? Given the obvious emotion Don displays in the Carousel pitch and the scene following it, we cannot call him a sociopath; he obviously feels something for his wife and his children. Sociopath’s lack emotion and fit in by mimicking others. So is Don just a poster boy for masculinity then? An anonymous commenter on the article argues that “Men, at their core, are ambitious, bold, out for their own well being, paternal, and providers.” It’s possible that all of Don’s sociopathic tendencies can be filed under "manliness." Don does not love his wife; rather she fulfills his need to be a provider. Betty needs Don to take care of her and be a father to her children, and Don wants someone to take care of. Yet it can be argued that Betty is not the type of woman that Don would fall in love with. His track record of serious affairs seems to be women who are independent and strong (i.e. Midge and Rachel). These women do not need Don, yet it seems that he is closer to loving them than he is to loving his wife.

“Bold, ambitious and out for his own well-being.” Definitely words that could be used to describe a man who hides his identity and steals a dead man's. A man who sleeps with an employee’s wife in order to control him better. A man who ruins his daughter's birthday party in order to get a few more hours away from the humdrum of suburbia. Don Draper is not a nice man, but he is not a sociopath. Don Draper is just a man. A man who has not been forced to tone down his masculinity in order to fit in to a more sensitive world, a man whose manliness has not been bogged down by society. “A man whose time has come," according to James Bassil, AskMen’s editor-in-chief. Alarmingly, the majority of men look to Don Draper for inspiration; should we assume that all men would be pseudo-sociopathic if it were not for external factors? Let’s hope not.

Links: "Don Draper:Sociopath?" and "Men Choose Television Sociopath as Their Biggest Influence in 2009."

A Different Angle on the "Carousel"

The “carousel scene" from Episode 13 of Mad Men’s first season has been recently celebrated as one of the best moments in television. Critics, fans, and even casual observers have noted the scene for its dialogue, creativity and intellectual underpinning. These elements, however, are not what makes the scene so powerful; rather, it is the camera shots and the different angles from which the viewers see the characters. Indeed, the entire scene is filmed to prove the audience with an intimate setting to experience the power of nostalgia.

Naturally, any scene in film is composed of many different elements, and, the relationship between these elements determines the success or failure of scene. Excellent dialogue can be undercut by poor editing, while the best costumes and sets cannot fix wooden acting. Since film is a visual medium, the camera work takes a special place in all of this, because it physically captures what we see. The shots and their angles provide the window through which the audience peers, by highlighting what we should see and excluding what we should not. It is our only window into whatever it is we are watching.

The “carousel scene” derives it power because it understands and utilizes these relationships exquisitely. The window the camera creates turns Don’s pitch from something the audience watches into something they experience. By creating a series of continually smaller and tighter shots, finishing on either Don’s face or a side in the projector, the audience literally comes face to face with the power of nostalgia

After a few shot/reverse shots of the characters talking at the conference table, the lights dim, and the world of Sterling Cooper falls away. Everyone fades into the darkness, and all the audience sees is Don and the pictures of his family. Through the haze of memory and cigarette smoke, fragments of Dons life before the diegesis of the show emerge. These snapshots of love, celebration, rest and relaxation fill the shot—they becoming the entirety of the image. For a second, they are the entire world. We escape that office and that boardroom and, for an instant, travel into Dons past—perhaps a reflection of our own. His slides could be scenes from anyone's life, and by showing them to us as the entirety of the shot, we confront our own existence. It’s no longer a television program we see before us but the intimate moments of a human life. The shots take us out of the show and place us into the memories of a family, which may be remarkably similar to our own. By filling the screen, the slides become a portal into the pains of Don’s life, while echoing the nostalgia we feel for our own departed experiences.

Even Don himself is captivated by the images he sees from the projector. As he discusses the power of nostalgia, emotions build. He looses the cool conversational tone, and his voice begins to crack with feeling. The more Don talks, the more he feels the power of nostalgia, and the closer the camera moves towards him. The scene builds until Don’s face occupies the shot, and his voice cracks with heartache and sorrow. The audience experiences Don’s pain by seeing it in its totality. By filming Don and only Don, the emotions become much more powerful. The place “where we know we are loved” does not exist for him, and we wonder, does it exist for us?

Taken together, these camera angles and shots produce an extraordinarily powerful scene. The camera becomes a tool to convey feeling and reflection. It creates a complicated yet subtle emotional event for the viewer. Not only do we hear about the power of nostalgia, but we observe it in the primary character and sense it in our own hearts. The shots manifest the esoteric nature of Don’s ideas, making them real and palpable. It allows us to watch and feel the power of memory and heartache. It is this effect which makes the "carousel scene" so good—it shows us, through Don, a slice of our own lives.

yes, it's kennedy, kennedy, kennedy, kennedy, kennedy, kennedy, kennedy for me!

Many say the reason Kennedy won the 1960 election was the televised candidates debate. Television played a major role in the election of America’s youngest and first Catholic president. Two different advertising companies were responsible for bringing Kennedy’s two hundred advertisements to America’s living rooms.

On the first season of Mad Men, Episode Ten, the office watches this iconic Kennedy ad:



This catchy jingle is a hard one to get out of your head. It might have even swayed you to rethink your vote. This ad is simple and to the point. It subtly reminds you of important issues without flooding you with information that is anti their opponent. This Nixon ad was also featured on the show.

The Kennedy jingle was revolutionary because it hadn’t been thought of before. It was the perfect compliment to the “out with the old in with the new” ideas that defined Kennedy’s campaign. Nixon’s ad is just so typical; it is what is expected of a classic grass roots candidate. The youthful approach to Kennedy’s campaign is ultimately why Nixon looses to the “new model” that Kennedy represents.

This is the election that truly showed the power of TV, but it was not the first election to use it as an advertising vehicle. Take this ad for president Eisenhower’s 1952 campaign:



Does it look similar? I am sure it does. Kennedy uses the same technique. Both candidates, Eisenhower a republican, and Kennedy a democrat won their elections. Crediting these catchy advertisements with the win would be wrong. However, the recycled tactic allowed for a new product to be marketed. Like, Don Draper (Jon Hamm), says, “Happy days are here again.” The advertisements play on nostalgia. What was old is new. It gives hope to the U.S. citizens when the country’s future looms in uncertainty. It brings safety by recognizing the familiar. This seems to be a repeating theme on the show especially when Don sells the Kodak Carousel in Episode Thirteen of the first season.

Using the old to sell the new is something that is relevant more than ever today. Just look at how many old trends are reinvented in pop cultures many outlets. With the State of the economy and the laundry list of other things that this current administration and the country has inherited it’s no wonder that we are looking to the past to move forward. On more than one occasion Obama has been compared to many leaders Kennedy included. So, it shouldn’t come as a shock that when this commercial for his presidential campaign was created it stirred a positive response:



It plays on all the Kennedy gimmicks a catchy tune, an inspirational speech, an unforgettable slogan, and celebrity endorsement. It’s hard to deny its effectiveness. It reminds the viewer the power of good things. Obama also won his campaign. This is proof that digging through the past to find the latest greatest is more than effective. It wins presidential campaigns regardless of party affiliation and so much more.

What a shame Nixon lost, if only the guys at Sterling Cooper thought of this sooner!

Don't Think Twice About Season One Finale

The first season finale of Mad Men left viewers with a sad and ambiguous ending of Don sitting by himself accompanied by Bob Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright.” This song is reflective of many of the character’s current moods as season one came to a close. Bob Dylan once introduced this song as, “a statement that maybe you can say to make yourself feel better… as if you were talking to yourself.” It shows that despite conflict, people can carry on scarred, but strong. Don and Betty have hit a major rough patch in their marriage as Don’s infidelity weakens their bond and happiness. Don has finally come to realize his lack of commitment to his family (including Betty, his kids, and his brother Adam), and the viewer senses feelings of guilt and sorrow for his shortcomings. The song embodies this harsh conflict and inserts a glimmer of hope through forgiveness and simply by moving on and dealing with problems without resentment. Dylan wanted this song to make people feel better as one can always deal with their issues and work to make things better. Dylan sings, “An' it ain't no use to sit and wonder why, babe. It’ll never do some how.” Producers of the show wanted these lyrics to sink in as viewers felt the weight and unhappiness of Don’s problems while still holding hope for resolution. The song is saying that it’s time to move on, resolve issues, and don’t think twice, it’s alright.

Link referenced: Last.fm.