"Love was invented by guys like me. To sell nylons."

[falafel_musings]

Anyone want to talk about the end of Mad Men?

I've had my fair share of issues with this show and I've steadily become a lesser fan from S5 onwards. But I mostly like the way they've ended it. With the Coke advert especially. Perfect really. Like, look at all the progress we've made in the last decade. Progress for women, progress for ethnic

Comments

[falafel_musings]

i The fact that Betty stuck around the entire series, considering she wasn't part of the office environment and was no longer part of Don's life, is a testament, I think, to how much the writers wanted that character around.

Maybe. Personally I felt that after Don/Betty divorced, Betty more often featured as a supporting character in Sally's story than the central character in her own plotline.

I just felt that the way he treated her was a sign of the times, and it was a story worth telling. Don wanted Betty as part of his slick package, and for much of the early seasons, Betty had no depth. She was absolutely fine with being a housewife and all the surface benefits that entailed. You said "but just Don's lack of support for Betty having any interests outside being a housewife. - what interests?

Betty was working as a model when she met Don and in 'Shoot' she wants to go back into modelling but Don tells her she already has 'a job' being a mother. Then in S3 she got involved in local politics saving the reservoir, another thing Don took no interest in. Certainly Betty is partly to blame for leaving her own ambitions till it was too late, but I disagree that she was fine being a housewife. Betty's whole S1 story was about how being just a housewife was driving her nuts. And the gaslighting came from Don encouraging Betty to think she was crazy to keep her from finding out that he was a liar, fraud and adulterer. Don could have encouraged Betty to take up classes and hobbies but instead he sent her to therapy.

As for the Coke ad, I used to watch that ad when I was a kid and it never inspired contempt in me.

I actually had never seen that particular Coke ad until watching this episode. So I guess it seems more manipulative to me now? I found it hard to see that final moment of MM strictly in its historical context and not fast-forward to all the modern Coke ad campaigns that continue to use those sort of sentimental cultural hooks to make so much money off of sugary brown water.