That blow up with the Jantzen (bikini, er, two-piece) men represented an important transition for Don, and a signal of the time we think about more commonly as ‘the sixties.’

His whole point, in storming out after they insisted his campaign be more “modest” was that customers are going in a certain direction (smaller bikinis), and you should catch the wave - not with a sexy product,  but with a smartly suggestive ad - before losing them based on 50s-era principles.

The whole episode is about the transition from the conservative early-sixties to a more modern time. And Don’s reflecting that, by eventually selling himself to the WSJ, by taking risks with the bikini guys, by realizing that it’s about what the public wants and not what the client wants. (It wasn’t that long ago when Don aligned himself with Nixon over Kennedy, and said, “There to be advertising for people without a sense of humor.” That bikini ad, in contrast, was a 180 from Season 2,  the 1962 Don.) The whole season will be about his evolution and the country’s revolution into a new era. The sexual revolution’s on, yo. This is just the  beginning.

In advertising, the new governing principle seems to be how success is more about the projection of yourself than real human-to-human relationships, which remains pervasive today, half a century later.

This is what television created. In the beginning, Harry Crane was some forgotten guy off in the corner, but TV changed the culture and made him somewhat important. If you were a print advertising guy and you couldnt keep up with the evocative nature of television, you lost. Shots of two wholesome girls in a park or whatever, they didn’t work anymore - don’t work anymore. The new rule for print ads - it has to be smart and good and different and challenge viewers, and Don’s getting that. Or at least he’s getting the confidence to fully express that.

The experience with Conrad Hilton in season three also changed Don. Remember when Sterling Cooper created that great “how do you say hamburger in Japanese” ad, and Hilton was displeased because it didn’t mention the moon? He’s no longer going to let the client get in the way of good work. It’s evolving individualism. There’s less subservience to the good of the institution, the client, etc.  They’re all telling him how important new clients are,  and he goes in there and tells them to fuck off.  It’s more about him and his exertion of his independence and what he believes, and less about his fifties-era reverence for the larger institutions that hire him or employ him.

Or maybe I’m just projecting what I think about media onto Don. Perhaps he’s just still burned by his father figure Hilton rejecting him last season. Your thoughts?

—Matt