Mad Men

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Heylel

Heylel

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Best I can tell, he's basically become Bert's sister. He owns a percentage and will collect a check, and that's all that is expected of him. I don't know what the specific percentage is anymore, but it's bound to be significant given how much the company has grown over the years. He was a junior at SC for what, 12.5%? It was probably 20-25% at SCDP (five partners with Pete as the junior), and no telling how it's split with Ted & co. Bottom line, Don is going to be a rich man for the rest of his life.
 
Lithose

Lithose

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Tenks_sl said:
I don't know if Don wants to be in advertising anymore. Advertising is really nothing more than a facade over the product and it is clear Don is trying to break down these facades.
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If you watch the episode where Duck tries to become president, it sets the tone for why Don loves a specific form of advertising but hates "Duck's" or "big business" kind. He says "I'm here to sell products, NOTadvertising."

Don likes advertising when he is selling what he sells a product, he hates advertising where he sells an ad. I think that was the whole point of making this a show about advertising--because it's such a good analogy to his life. It can really be about two things, selling a product (IE an honest picture of yourself) or selling an ad (Using the power of media/deception to get your product out there--like Don used the Draper image).

I think he will want to stay in sales...I think though he wants to run a small shop. That line "Don only likes the start of things..." that was true--but I think it was said about much more than relationships. Don really likes when things are new because the advertisement matches the product. A small or new shop doesn't have millions to flood the market with ads, and hold media campaigns, they have to sell their product on the power of the ad itself--and I think Don really likes that but he hates the other way (Remember Chevy? Every time we get a car this place becomes a whore house. Don was already disconnected from the company when they became a "boots on the ground" shop.)
 
Lithose

Lithose

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Heylel_sl said:
Best I can tell, he's basically become Bert's sister. He owns a percentage and will collect a check, and that's all that is expected of him. I don't know what the specific percentage is anymore, but it's bound to be significant given how much the company has grown over the years. He was a junior at SC for what, 12.5%? It was probably 20-25% at SCDP (five partners with Pete as the junior), and no telling how it's split with Ted & co. Bottom line, Don is going to be a rich man for the rest of his life.
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Yeah. Joan's share of the company, which was 5%, was worth over a million dollars--and the company isbiggernow (Even if it's split more.) Even if Dononlyowned 10%, he's looking at the equivalent of 12+ million by today's standards (And that's a really conservative estimate)...Also, Don got around 500k from the sale of SC, and he's been working as a partner since, with only short times of no pay--so even if he's terrible with money and only lived off his salary (minus the house), he still had the 60's equivalent of 3 million+whatever his draw will be for his ownership of the company (Which give the value of it, is probably significant.)
 
Rengak

Rengak

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Heylel_sl said:
I didn't quite buy the whole "Don is fucking over everyone" angle either, especially with Peggy and Ted. The whole "competition" between the two of them seemed to be entirely in Ted's head, except where it concerned his obvious and inappropriate relationship to Peggy. I honestly don't think Don had all that much of a territorial thing going, especially with his old protege. It's just that everyone wanted to see something there, and so they're projecting onto Don. With him being such an empty suit this year, it was easy to do, and he didn't really go out of his way to correct that interpretation.
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Don was actively working against Ted this season. Fromhttp://www.hitfix.com/whats-alan-wat...-from-season-6

Relating to Don's behavior, he was behaving erratically, missing meetings, making unilateral decisions that hurt the firm. But what I also noticed was that even when his pitches were good, they involved specifically omitting the product. The Royal Hawaiian and Diamondhead are not in that ad, the ketchup is not in the Heinz ad, the car doesn't appear in his Vega teaser ad. Was there something specific to that? Was Don already disengaging from the game at that point?

Matthew Weiner: That's a very interesting analysis. It's hard for me to explain this, but Don's ads this year are spectacular. That omission is actually kind of an expression of creative genius. It is where things are going. It is the way advertising will be in 1975. You just have to talk the clients into it. The idea of how do you draw someone's attention in when you live literal photography and you can scream at them with the product bigger and more accurately than ever, is something they're struggling with. I don't want people to think Don is off his game. The clients are a little behind. That's the way they should see it. What they should really think about is that he ruined a public offering, he fired their most important client, he impulsively forced them into a partnership merger and then went to war against their partner. That's why he has the leave of absence. I don't think there should be any doubt that he is at the height of his abilities. The great thing about Don, and part of the contrast with Ted, is Don is not a fad-ist. Don is still operating from his own relationship with the product, which is more timeless. Despite trends in humor, photography and everything else that's going on in what the advertising agency's self-proclaimed creative revolution, Don's advertising, I think, is still great advertising, and probably better than a lot of the advertising that is getting sold. His understanding of television is the reason they got Sunkist, you know?

That's a really interesting analysis, though. What I found out there is that there is a style to what Don pitches, and it didn't even occur to me. It's constructed by so many people here at our fake agency.
Read more athttp://www.hitfix.com/whats-alan-wat...22HZHFLvh0g.99
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Also in that interview - Joan landed the Avon account, so good for her!
 
chaos

chaos

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They didn't do a good job of showing that outside of the one episode where Don almost outs Ted for having an affair in the middle of a pitch. Which was abhorrent, but still. Aside from that he was mostly just absentee.
 
Breakdown

Breakdown

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chaos_sl said:
Don wasn't so much competing with Ted as he was just not working with him, which is the same thing really.

I was wondering how the partnership thing works. Don owns a significant portion of the business. He could sell and really fuck them over, but there is probably some contract or something to prevent that.
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Typically a Partner cant sell his stake to an outside interest without approval of the rest of the firm. Also alot of contracts only allow partners to be bought out by the firm.
 
Lithose

Lithose

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Rengak_sl said:
The great thing about Don, and part of the contrast with Ted, is Don is not a fad-ist.Don is still operating from his own relationship with the product
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Don likes advertising when he sells a product, he hates advertising where he sells an ad

Didn't see this interview before, but I'm glad I wasn't misreading this. This was makes Don's ads really great, he cares about the product, not the advertising. Also like how he intended to show Don is so far ahead of the curve that everyone else is struggling to keep pace.
 
chaos

chaos

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I almost forgot my favorite line of the night, courtesy of Mack: "I'd tell you to go to hell, but I never want to see you again."
 
Cantatus

Cantatus

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Lithose_sl said:
I think he will want to stay in sales...I think though he wants to run a small shop. That line "Don only likes the start of things..." that was true--but I think it was said about much more than relationships. Don really likes when things are new because the advertisement matches the product. A small or new shop doesn't have millions to flood the market with ads, and hold media campaigns, they have to sell their product on the power of the ad itself--and I think Don really likes that but he hates the other way (Remember Chevy? Every time we get a car this place becomes a whore house. Don was already disconnected from the company when they became a "boots on the ground" shop.)
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Yeah, I don't think Don is going to just go retire out in California and become Dick. I think this season was a lot about exploring the dichotomy of Dick and Don and how he's slowly giving up on the facade, but I think next season will be him figuring out he isn't just Don or just Dick, and him having to reconcile those two parts of who he is. Becoming Don doesn't mean he lost everything that Dick was and the reverse will be true as well.

It's like what Trudy said to Pete: "It's going to take you a moment to realize where you are: You're free." And that's why I could very easily see next season lead to Don/Dick setting up his own shop where he does things the way he wants.
 
chaos

chaos

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I just read that the woman who plays Sylvia also does the voice of Wendy on Gravity Falls. And was the chick from Grandma's Boy. I had no idea.
 
Heylel

Heylel

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This was a good season. Honestly I'm kind of glad for a break from must see TV until Breaking Bad starts back up (no idea how i'm going to catch the gf up on Breaking Bad in time). It's giving me time to rewatch some older shows I've been meaning to revisit such as The Shield and Sopranos.
 
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