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.

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!

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

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!

mccann is one of the largest and most iconic ad shops ever.

Of course now all those legendary shops - mccann, ogilvy, saatchi, bbdo, etc have all been swallowed up by huge holding companies with further consolidation the name of the game as ad-spend and margins get crushed in the ad space.

I liked the ending - very fitting.

But I love the true story of the Coke ad even more.

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.

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!

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.

Mad Men sparked the 'golden age' of tv on regular cable.

It fundamentally changed how the industry viewed TV and is one of the greatest shows of all time for being so iconic.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Girl at the desk at the retreat had the same braids as a girl in the coke ad. Don went back to NYC and created the coke ad based on the retreat. Don wants to run away, but something always pulls him back.

That is the same thing my husband and I noticed. The red threads in the braids were way to distinctive in the show to accidentally be in the ad.

Sally won't take care of her bothers. There is enough money for nannies & boarding school for them.

You guys are good! I need to watch it again because I missed a lot of the halloween background, calendars, red threads, etc.
I did get that Don created the Coke ad at the end. I think he realized he was absolutely free- Betty made it clear that he wasn't going to raise the boys (which was probably the right decision but oh so sad).

Anonymous wrote:This was a pretty good prediction regarding the Coke ad:

http://www.vox.com/2015/5/12/8589783/mad-men-finale-predictions

Someone here linked to this last week and I can't believe how dead-on it is. I was shocked.

This was a pretty good prediction regarding the Coke ad:

http://www.vox.com/2015/5/12/8589783/mad-men-finale-predictions

I'm often intrigued by Hollywood relationships. I'm curious if John Hamm and Evan Arnold are old friends.

I have to think that Hamm had a hand in picking who gave that monologue, it was good, and well delivered.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0036439/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cl_t29

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Btw, why were there halloween decorations all over - on peggy's octopus painting, on joan's refrigerator, etc.

That will be analyzed for decades. And will never be fully understood.

Ummm...it was autumn.

Anonymous wrote:Girl at the desk at the retreat had the same braids as a girl in the coke ad. Don went back to NYC and created the coke ad based on the retreat. Don wants to run away, but something always pulls him back.

That is the same thing my husband and I noticed. The red threads in the braids were way to distinctive in the show to accidentally be in the ad.

Sally won't take care of her bothers. There is enough money for nannies & boarding school for them.