You know Don didn't invent the "It's Toasted" line either, right?
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I agree but a TV show that took great pains to stick to story lines that fit into our reality. It sort of sucks if it tossed all that in the trash in the final scene.
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Yes, I noted that earlier. But it was at the beginning of the series as they were setting up the Don Draper character, and hadn't done that kind of thing since. In fact, it seemed they had taken special pains to avoid that. That's why it seems so odd at the end, although it could be a fitting bookend, I guess.
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If you don't like consistency, that's fine.
quote:it clicked with me instantly only because someone posted links to the ad on this thread like 20 pages ago after the McCann takeover episode. I think we mostlu agreed that it was a cool idea to speculate on but didn't think they would actually have don create the ad. Well they did.
Confession: Don getting the idea for the Coke add didn't click with me when I watched it live.
I was under the impression that his grin meant he was finally ok with letting everything else go. On the rewatch, I think it's pretty obvious he came up with the ad right then.
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First, I really don't think the ending is ambiguous. It refuses to spell out the inessential details, but it is very clear that Don returns to NYC and sells to ME the ad he came up with at the hippie retreat. I suppose there is some ambiguity about whether he changes and becomes a better parent/emotional partner, but to think that he does flies in the face of all the evidence throughout the series.
quote:quote:No, I got it from the get go. he obviously went back to ME and was responsible for the Coke ad. I just wanted to see more with his transformation, I thought it was boring. And, so he does embrace Don, okay, fine, but he goes back to work for a place he hates. Maybe he grows to like it, but he hated everything that place stood for and it's smarmy people.
I think the people that hated it and posted right away didn't get it. Then when people get it explained to them, they like it.
I just don't like it.
I liked the ending with Peggy and Stan, but wish she'd gone in on the partnership with Joan.
All in all, it was just okay. But I've found over the years, that most last episodes never live up to the hype.
But, it was a great show and I loved it over all.
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I think we're simply going to see him leave the agency and go do something he wants to do. Possibly with another woman at his side, possibly without. But there will be more optimism than pessimism with the way it ends for Don. Then it's up to the viewer to decide for themselves whether Don will really find happiness this time, or if he'll fall back in the vicious circle of self-destruction
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-Don knew this whole McCann takeover was coming as he predicted it in the finale last season.
-No way Don is still working for McCann when this series ends, Looking more like he goes to California. Ted's story of meeting some random woman on the street will inspire him and maybe that's how they end it...insert Tina Fey as random girl he meets last episode lol
-they opened the door to a Pete-Trudy reconciliation. I'm really rooting for that couple for some reason.
-Peggy went through the generic Feminist debate and is further emboldened by her career choices. She wants to create something important and make a lasting impact on the world and sh's okay now with that creation not being a child.
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I agree but a TV show that took great pains to stick to story lines that fit into our reality. It sort of sucks if it tossed all that in the trash in the final scene.
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If you don't like consistency, that's fine.
quote:quote:But he obviously didn't. That's what I don't like about that ending. I mean, if Don did come up with the ad, it wasn't in this reality.quote:
I don't believe Peggy came up with the Coke ad, if she had, they wouldn't have put Don right before it. It would have transitioned from her to the ad. I don't believe Don did either. That ad has a very specific, and well known origin...http://www.coca-colacompany.com/stories/coke-lore-hilltop-story. If Weiner wanted Don to create a world changing ad, I think he would of written a fake one, like he did so many other times in the show. I think it was just a sign of the times, a symbol of the end of the 60s (which this show was partly about) and the beginning of the 70s.
I agree with what you're saying about Don not changing... but he came up with the ad.
quote:That's why they are opinions. This discussion is a testament to the writer/creator. He wanted an ambiguous ending, and got one. Well done.
Fighting a losing battle Quad Dog. You might as well tuck your tail and leave this thread. I am not going to say you are wrong, but you are as far from right as you can be. You are in Antartica.
quote:Ignoring the fact that you said it wasn't an overt theme of the show so it seems like it would be weird to end the series on a non-overt theme, I guess I just think they could have easily shown the 60s ending and the 70s beginning in other ways that didn't involve telling the audience or at least strongly implying that Don created the ad. I thought it was clear he thought of the ad at that moment. And then it's up to the viewer to decide if he ended up creating the ad, gave the idea to Peggy, etc.
I thought I explained it in my original post, but that ad on the show is the end of the 60s era, and beginning of the 70s. That wasn't an overt theme of the show, but the conflict of generations sure was.
The show and the 60s both ended on that ad.
quote:The difference in the case of Don is that no one in the world, other than the family and co-workers of the guy who actually had the idea for the Coke ad, knew at the time who created the ad. No one else knew the name of the actual agency that represented Coke. And no one watching Mad Men knows who created the ad or the agency involved other than a tiny number of media experts, who passed that along to those of us interested in the inner workings of the show.
Let's say they make a show about minor-league baseball in the steroids era, and they sell it as a true-to-life look at what playing pro baseball was like in the late '90s and early 2000s. The writers stick with that conceit all the way through, getting the uniforms right, the steroids correct, playing everything historically accurate around the lives of the characters. Then, in the finale, they have their minor-league hero, Needles McGee or whatever, go play for the Cardinals and blast Brad Lidge's pitch to the parking lot to win Game 5 of the 2005 NLCS. Personally, I'm going to be disappointed. The false breaks through the sense of the true they were working with.
quote:quote:The difference in the case of Don is that no one in the world, other than the family and co-workers of the guy who actually had the idea for the Coke ad, knew at the time who created the ad. No one else knew the name of the actual agency that represented Coke. And no one watching Mad Men knows who created the ad or the agency involved other than a tiny number of media experts, who passed that along to those of us interested in the inner workings of the show.
Let's say they make a show about minor-league baseball in the steroids era, and they sell it as a true-to-life look at what playing pro baseball was like in the late '90s and early 2000s. The writers stick with that conceit all the way through, getting the uniforms right, the steroids correct, playing everything historically accurate around the lives of the characters. Then, in the finale, they have their minor-league hero, Needles McGee or whatever, go play for the Cardinals and blast Brad Lidge's pitch to the parking lot to win Game 5 of the 2005 NLCS. Personally, I'm going to be disappointed. The false breaks through the sense of the true they were working with.
In your analogy, the hitter is somewhat well-known. In the case of the Coke ad, both then and now, the actual creator is essentially anonymous, as is the creator of the "It's Toasted" line used earlier in the show and attributed to Don.
quote:I agree with this. I was on the young end when the ad came out but remember it either still playing or variants of it that came later in the mid 70s. I think based on what Weiner put Don through, only he had the "insight" to pull it off. Not Peggy, not some other creative at McCann, but Don.
But as I've mentioned, unless you actually lived through that ad and "Coke. The real thing." you can't appreciate just how huge and iconic it was and the emotions it inspires.. Of COURSE Don came up with it. who else could have?
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It was too big of a historical event to take and attribute to Don Draper. Historical fiction has to be a balance of the true (historical events) and the false (the story of the characters).