Mad Men finale! (Spoilers, of course)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Apparently it's quite a debate on who wrote the Coke commercial, Don or Peggy. I'm quite certain it's meant to be Don because of the girl with the braided hair.

http://time.com/3882311/mad-men-finale-coke-song/

"In real life, of course, the song was actually the brainchild of a man named Bill Backer, a creative director at McCann-Erickson. But getting in on the social debate Sunday night, even Coca-Cola thought it was Don."

Then they show a tweet from Coca-Cola thanking Don Draper for the brilliant ad.

I had no idea that McCann-Erickson was a real advertising firm and that they created the Coke ad. Brilliant!

Coke tweeted a thank you to Don!

Whoops. Apparently I cannot read. Sorry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How long was Don actually gone for? a few weeks, a few months? Trying to piece together how much time as gone by since he left but also between the last two episodes.

Two months. He was suppose to drop Sally off at school the day before he left. Basically all of Sept and Oct. The Coke ad was released in January 1971.

Also kind of funny that Joan does a like of cocain-- coke, in the episode. Now that's the real thing...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The real story of how Bill Backer created the Coke commercial.

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/mad-men-series-finale-true-story-coca-coca/story?id=31116111

"The Coca-Cola commercial is one of Backer’s most notable pop culture contributions. He also helped to develop winning campaigns for Miller (“Tastes great/less filling”) and Campbell (“Soup is good food”), as well as Coke’s “It’s the Real Thing.”"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The ending for Sally was the only one that I didn't like - she went from charting her own path and weaving out of her mother's iron thumb, to being tied down by having to leave school, give up her europe plans, take care of her brothers, etc., all at age 16 ... It makes Betty's final words to her in her letter even sadder, because he life may not be an adventure. However, it does link to a few episodes ago when Don told Sally that she didn't understand the value of a dollar (when he wanted her to sell her field hockey equipment) - she certainly won't be a spoiled girl any longer. This one stung for me because I am about Sally's age and my mother also died when I was late teens (a little older than Sally is) - I have a nice life, but my mother's death when I was young did change both my then immediate life and the direction of my life.

I think for Sally it's a temporary blip. The boys will go off to live with the aunt and uncle, and Sally won't be needed to fill in for Betty any longer. After Betty dies and the boys move, Sally will resume where she left off and go off and have a beautiful, adventurous life.

I was shouting "NO, JOAN!" when she did coke. I thought she was going to have a tragic end; I never should have lost faith in the awesomeness of Joan. LOVED her ending!

I did not want Stan and Peggy to get together; that seems like a trite rom-com ending to me. (Stan running down the hall while Peggy is still on the phone. Really, Matt Weiner?) I loved their friendship. But Elizabeth Moss was *amazing* in that phone scene where Stan reveals his feelings.

I loved the goodbye scene with Peggy and Pete (including his being a bit tone-deaf when reminding Peggy, "I have a five-year-old").

Still processing Don's ending. I wish the episode hadn't ended with that commercial. It felt a bit cheap to wind up the series with an ad, although it's also a deeply cynical ending.

[Anonymous]

I was a little sad that Peggy did not wind up with Ted Chaough. When he mentioned that he had gotten divorced, I thought they'd get back together.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:i saw the finale and dont have the takeaway that the majority of people i see on twitter and read online are saying that don came up with the coke idea and went back to nyc. it seems to easy and almost lazy of a way to end the show.

also, don seemed to have destroyed his entire life back home, that i cant imagine that he can come back and make it all better.

to me, i took the ending to mean he found some inner peace with himself and that he was going to start anew continuing to do the don thing but on another level, career, and everything. i dont think he was going to be a hippie or anything. just that he found a current happy place and was going to move on from there.

the coke commercial tie in to me was a symbol of sorts of his last supposed campaign along with symbolizing his new so-called happy place.

im probably not making myself too clear and i admit that. i just think there was more ambiguity to the ending that simple him coming up with a coke campaign after all that.

and that ambiguity is exactly why i enjoyed the finale, cause i know people will interpret the ending in many ways.

Well said! That is my perspective too.

[Anonymous]

I am enjoying the ending a lot more this morning than I did last night.

I was bored with the too-cute dialog between characters - Joan/Roger; Peggy/Stan; Peggy/Pete. The show was so much smarter than that for so many seasons and then it was sunshine and rainbows. So bored that I missed the Coke ad cleverness at first - I just wanted to go to bed!

BUT the Don ending, on reflection, was amazing. His future was not going to be much different than his past:
Using his own advertising persuasion to convince himself he can be someone else but then succumbing to his flaws and being a mess all the while a brilliant adverting genius. I like to imagine he and Peggy pitching the Coke concept to the client together.

Matthew Weiner has said many times he knew when he wrote the pilot exactly how the show would end and it was brilliant. Wish he had spent a little more time on the other characters though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The real story of how Bill Backer created the Coke commercial.

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/mad-men-series-finale-true-story-coca-coca/story?id=31116111

"The Coca-Cola commercial is one of Backer’s most notable pop culture contributions. He also helped to develop winning campaigns for Miller (“Tastes great/less filling”) and Campbell (“Soup is good food”), as well as Coke’s “It’s the Real Thing.”"

Damn - most creatives would kill for just one campaign that's half as legendary - this dude has multiple.

[Anonymous]

I'd love to know how the executives at McCann felt about being featured as a bureaucratic borg of a place. I know the old saw about any publicity being good publicity but this seems excessive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'd love to know how the executives at McCann felt about being featured as a bureaucratic borg of a place. I know the old saw about any publicity being good publicity but this seems excessive.

Whoever is running the McCann world wide twitter seems to be enjoying it, very cheekily too!

https://twitter.com/mccann_ww

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'd love to know how the executives at McCann felt about being featured as a bureaucratic borg of a place. I know the old saw about any publicity being good publicity but this seems excessive.

Well considering that was mccann of 40-50 years ago, I don't think Interpublic (parent company) cares.

That's like CIA & State Dept SES/SIS getting hung up over the adage from 50 years ago that you had to be Yale, Male, and Pale to work there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What the fuck was that? Wiener is brilliant, and let us down. Can't even. . .

So pissed.

I agree. Not what I had hoped for.

[Anonymous]

Slightly off topic. Mad Men is usually very meticulous on period details, but did I see Post-It notes on Joan's calendar in her final scene in her dining room/home office? That can't be right? The debuted many years later.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What the fuck was that? Wiener is brilliant, and let us down. Can't even. . .

So pissed.

I agree. Not what I had hoped for.

What do you think would have been better? I thought it made perfect sense. Everything Don does is cyclical. This is another cycle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Slightly off topic. Mad Men is usually very meticulous on period details, but did I see Post-It notes on Joan's calendar in her final scene in her dining room/home office? That can't be right? The debuted many years later.

Post it's came out in the 70s, late 70s, but at least the decade is correct.