Mad Men: Season 5 Unpopular Opinions: Don/Peggy Edition

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Originally posted by sunclouds33 at Mad Men: Season 5 Unpopular Opinions: Don/Peggy Edition
I wrote a REALLY long piece of my UOs for S5 Don/Peggy. I just decided to make it it's own post. I'll come back (probably much later) with my other Mad Men S5 Unpopular Opinions.

As in my S4 discussion (and this will be a theme), I’m much more on Don’s side in the Don v. Peggy of the season than the majority. Although, as in S4, both sides have their own merit and misbehaviors.

I get why Peggy was preemptively upset at the notion of Don promoting Megan to be a copywriter in Tomorrowland. Megan was untested, Peggy didn’t know what the dynamic would look like. However, IMO, the way that things ultimately shook out, Megan’s promotion didn’t really hurt Peggy but she acted like it did because whether it’s Glo-Coat or flowers on Shirley’s desk, Peggy likes to play the victim.

As it turned out, Megan was talented. Even more to the point of “What level nepotism are we talking about?”, Don hardly made Megan a copy supervisor. He instructed Peggy to give Megan some basic first-year copywriter assignments like coupons and taglines. Megan wasn’t put in charge of strategies or presentations. Megan did her scut-work competently with grace and commitment as long as she was at SCDP. Peggy, with her experience, was always Megan’s boss. Nepotism placed a lot of the characters where they are- Roger, Pete, Danny. Megan was the most benign example, IMO. A talented female copywriter who is very easy-going about doing any kind of work is a boon to the creative wing, and a boon to Peggy as a woman and a supervisor.

Yes, everyone in the Creative wing felt like they were interacting with the Boss’s Wife. Don would prefer to get work from Megan so they could flirt instead of the whole team coming in. Megan went to high-level dinners and outings as Don’s Wife because “company wife” was one of the roles that she was obligated to play as the partner’s wife even though she was also playing the role of “junior copywriter.” Megan kept Don’s tardy hours since they traveled together, and no one could say boo about her leaving work early on her own (A Little Kiss, Lady Lazarus).

Yes, that’s not strictly *fair*. However, IMO, it was only unfair to the degree that: (a) Creatives were constantly reminded that they had a millionaire boss’s wife wearing expensive clothes working alongside them as opposed to locked up in the suburban or Manhattan mansion and (b) no one could really yell at Megan or take her to task. (A) is unfair like social classes are unfair- but nothing that should destroy anyone’s anticipated work experience, especially since they all signed up to work in advertising with its EXTREME wealth divisions. (B) would be terrible, if Megan did anything to deserve being yelled at or fired. Granted, I think the most unfair anecdote that I heard about Megan working there is that Megan borrowed a lot of lunch money from Ginsberg (like over $100 adjusted for inflation) but never paid him back and Ginsberg was afraid to bring it up with her. *That’s* a fair gripe, about Megan (even though it was played for laughs). It meant more to me than Peggy’s flaily, cranky but non-verbalized issues about her belief that she has to tip-toe around Megan all the time because she's the boss's wife (but Peggy will insist that they're FRIENDS! in her next breath after acting like working beside her is profoundly unfair). However, professionally, my understanding that Peggy didn’t have anything to really yell at Megan about until she lied to Peggy to ditch work early and Peggy got caught having to lie to Don…..And then, Peggy DID yell at Megan...

As for the lateness/leaving early, SCDP isn’t a model of decorum, especially later in the ‘60s. Don had a pretty consistent philosophy that he doesn’t care if his creatives are drinking (and costing the company to mop up spilled drinks after they had too many), smoking pot on the job, going to the movies to “knock the cobwebs out”, late to work, heading out for nooners or LOL, doing what Don does as long as their creative work is excellent (according to his demanding but arbitrary standards). Some days, Peggy feels like being a Don and keeps irregular hours and smokes pot and drinks in the office and sometimes, she feels like being an apple-polisher who’s all, “I try to tell ‘em about the important things in life. Discipline, responsibility, PUNCUTALITY. Might as well be talking to myself” /Snyder voice. However, her “dependent on my mood” unfair office policies aren't the moral standard by which everyone should live by.

Note, I just describe my opinions on the fairness of the “I knew a girl with your job and she wound up with everything”/Joan voice situation. Peggy never SAID that she resented Megan’s presence in the creative wing- but I think it colors Peggy’s and Don’s interactions in S5 and IMO, how phony I find the Megan/Peggy “friendship” even by phony Mad Men standards.

I was pretty much entirely on Don’s side in A Little Kiss and Far Away Places vis a vis his relationship with Peggy. There are a number of issues in both eps- so I’m going to organize this part of the episode topically instead of chronologically.

Was it fair for Don to make Peggy responsible for selling Heinz, given Peggy’s experience?

It was a pretty logical evolution of Peggy’s career to put her in charge of the Heinz campaign- coming up with the ideas and selling it to Raymond. Peggy was already coming up with the ideas and performing the pitches for products as early as late S2 (the Volkswagon pitch, the Popsicle account) right through pitching to a more important client at the pivotal moment when Lucky Strike left (Playtex) in late S4. It’s a step up in prestige- Heinz was a very important account for early S5 SCDP and it’s a household product sold to moms but out of the pink ghetto of beauty products that just demand “you won because you’re girlier” come-backs. It’s also a step up in difficulty to go along with the prestige- Raymond knows he’s from an important company (even if he’s the less celebrated division) and he’s a big break for SCDP and no one from SCDP sold him on an actual idea to get his business.

Predictable to human nature, Peggy was excited about the prestige of being on such important business but cranky that it actually turned out to be hard to succeed. That defined Peggy’s issues with Heinz, as far as I’m concerned.

Did Raymond reject Peggy’s ideas because she was a woman? If so, should Don have realized that Peggy could never sell to Raymond?

I do think that we’re supposed to wonder if Raymond from Heinz was so sexist that he couldn’t accept, even a good idea, from a woman. However, I think that the clues are there to show that Raymond was definitely sexist (like EVERY regular or recurring adult male on the show) but not that Raymond was such a misogynist that putting Peggy on the account was putting her on a fool’s errand.

Season 5 DOES deal with that issue of SCDP not giving Peggy accounts because they don’t think she can sell to those particular clients as a woman.

Pete: Don and I have been trying to explain to Lane this is a daily business and we'll need a dedicated copywriter.
Lane: I don't understand why Miss Olson can't handle it.
Roger: Because these guys are gonna ask her to make drinks.

Don: Mohawk airlines is returning.
Peggy: That's great. That's a big fish.
Roger: It's a minnow, but it's our minnow.
Peggy: Well, I obviously have experience. I mean, at a low level, but I saw how it worked.
Don: Your plate is full. And, frankly, Mohawk is going to insist on a regular copywriter.
Roger: Someone with a penis.
Peggy: I'll work on that.

Peggy: I have to talk about something kind of serious.
Don: I can't put a girl on Jaguar. These car guys...I just can't. - But, you know-

Peggy was rightly aggrieved by all of this. It actually creates an interesting debate where I actually don't think there are any completely right answers. Should SCDP put a female copywriter on an account from a particularly sexist industry? On one hand, SCDP shouldn’t discriminate against its female copywriters and exclude them from prestige, high-billing fields like cars and airplanes. Perhaps, some of these Mohawk or Jaguar execs are more open-minded than Pete/Don/Roger assume or perhaps, their opinions could evolve once they work with a smart, confident professional woman on an upper-level (a dynamic captured by Mad Men in a lot of the eps).

Yet on the other hand, advertising largely conforms and sucks up to corporations, at least at the stage of attracting business for the first time. Beauty industries started to ask for female copywriters in the 1963- so Mad Ave suddenly found room for female copywriters servicing those accounts. However, apparently, cars and airplanes were not there yet for obvious reasons. Peggy does not profit if her agency loses out on an important car or airplane account because her boss insisted on putting her on the account- it can jeopardize her bonuses or status through the agency. Peggy REALLY doesn’t profit if SCDP sends her out to present to misogynistic creeps where she’s doomed to fail no matter what she does or if she’s kept in the backroom writing copy for Jaguar or Mohawk but never able to claim or present the ideas. She wouldn't want to be on a fool's errand of an account.

Ideally, I'd say that SCDP still should have taken "trust falls" and made Peggy the designated copywriter on male-dominated accounts like Mohawk and Jaguar and I definitely side with Peggy in her frustrations in S5 that she didn't get to work on those accounts. (I discuss more below).

However, no one (including Peggy) put Raymond/Heinz in that group. Neither the characters or I thought Peggy was on a fool's errand with Raymond for gender reasons, even though some audience members act like it's the case without definitively saying it because the evidence doesn't exist. In my judgment, it's a total plus that Peggy got the big important account to manage and present.

I have compassion, though, that the perennial indecision of whether her sex is actively impeding her pitches is a problem for Peggy. She’s stuck between a rock and hard place. Her choice of accounts is necessarily limited because of her gender. She correctly resents that. When she does get an important account to call her own like Heinz Vinegars, Sauces, and Beans, she still has completely earned paranoia that she can’t win the business because she’s a woman which isn’t exactly helped by Raymond’s parochial, old-fashioned, flyover state affect. We never learn definitively if Raymond would buy an idea that he liked just as much from a woman as a man. (See my discussion of The Codfish Ball later.) However, I think my compassion for Peggy's tough spot meshes with my disapproval of her behavior. IMO, one of the underrated parts of MM is the ugly, cold, unflattering side of women living in a sexist society. Their hostile environment does warp the Mad Men female characters and makes them more brittle, meaner, less trusting, more unfair to each other and guys who aren't the bad guy in THIS instance, and less likely to accept responsibility for shit that's actually their fault because they're so focused on just fighting for what's theirs that they'll never take a loss.

I think that gets to the heart of Peggy's anxiety. She comes off like a nervous poodle meets hyper-aggressive yappy pitbull because she has little faith that things will work out because she knows she's on an unfair playing field. She can't sanguinely believe that if she works hard and well, her efforts will be rewarded down the line with promotions and raises. Don's unpredictable moodiness at work could be a mostly benign boss-quirk in an egalitarian society. I actually think that, for the most part, the male employees at SC/SCDP regard Don's moodiness as a benign-boss quirk (except for S6 when it got way too intense). However in the '60s for a woman, it's considerably more destabilizing and nervous-making.

Still, though, I think that Raymond was sexist like every guy on the show- but he would absolutely buy a good idea from a woman. Raymond sat down to listen to Peggy’s Bean Ballet and Campfire Beans idea with an open mind and the actor genuinely played him listening with some interest to Peggy's work, but then not liking it. Raymond’s critiques were also on-point.

*I* thought the Bean Ballet was attention-getting and it would stick in people’s minds. However, Raymond’s comments that he was (a) looking for an ad with more of a substantial message about deeper human issues instead of a novelty act and (b) a slow-motion camera shot of still wet, beans dancing alone could look gross (LOL at “They’re better in a group”) were pretty damn fair critiques from a client. That's a completely fair judgment call. He's not Connie Hilton demanding to see "the moon" in ads about his hotel chain just because "the moon" came up when Connie and Don were (lol) drinking moonshine. He's not Herb asking SCDP to halve their proposed national ad buy in favor of local ads targeted to Herb's dealerships- and then, force SCDP to lie to reluctant senior executives from Jaguar headquarters (who are also their clients) that this was their idea. Raymond's critiques were pretty on-point, understandable, and nicely worded to Peggy and at this point, he wasn't rejecting the agency but just asking them to go back to the drawing board.

As for the Campfire Beans, *I* thought it was a really clichéd, lazy ad. IMO, Peggy heard Raymond’s remark that he’d like to sell beans to younger people by showing them eating it as a social occasion, told Stan to put it onto a drawing with a really stupid tagline- “Home is where the Heinz Is” to describe a camping trip of teenage friends. I know Peggy was stressing about the pitch, it’s not like she didn’t take it seriously. I’m sure she spent time on it. However, I do think she thought Raymond-pleasing was her ticket to a “yes” and she focused on adhering on that to the letter and turned the creative side of her brain off. Raymond reacted to that just like I did.

Raymond: I did ask for college students.
Peggy: I know that, Raymond. And we want you to have everything you asked for.
Raymond: Well, stop writing down what I asked for and try to figure out what I want.

However as I said earlier, The Codfish Ball deliberately casts the sale of the ad so the audience never learns definitively if a woman could sell to Raymond. When Don and Megan actually sell their History of Heinz ad, Megan orients the improv-story to give Don the credit for coming up with the idea while Megan was the picturesque loving wife spooning out the beans for Don’s kids. However, Megan decided to go that way to save the account at the last minute when it looked like Raymond was going to fire SCDP and it’s unclear why:

(1) because Megan thought the idea would have more credibility coming from Don as man instead Megan as a woman
(2) because Megan though the idea would have more credibility coming from Don as the living legend Creative Director and partner as opposed to Megan, the junior copywriter pitching her first complete strategy
(3) Megan wanted to save the account, but she was already having doubts about being a copywriter so she instinctively gave the writing credit to Don because she didn’t care that much about keeping it but instead, unconsciously cast herself as the actress playing the “spooning out beans mother-role” so gracefully that she’s a muse for the production
(4) Megan was really going out on a limb with this improv relative to her experience but she was concerned about being on the spot and speaking for the agency on the business/partner side of things like residuals or targeted markets so she put the idea on Don to defend if Raymond had follow-up questions that Megan didn’t feel prepared for or if Raymond was going to angrily reject the idea.

At any rate, I think it could be either of those four reasons or maybe a combination.

Did Don have an obligation to hard-sell the Bean Ballet in A Little Kiss or attend the presentation for Campfire Beans (and sell the ad)?

See, I think I answered this question above.

(1) I felt it was appropriate for Don to give Peggy full control over the creative-side of the Heinz account, given where she was in her career. Don approved the ideas- but it was on Peggy to come up with them and sell them. Given Peggy's past presentations and her most senior level copywriter, this was an appropriate assignment for her.

(2) I think Peggy could have sold an idea that Raymond liked- like I think she could have sold "Heinz: Some Things Never Change."

(3) I think Raymond had valid personality/preferences reasons to reject the Bean Ballet. Campfire Beans was just plain boring and poorly written. I have an aversion to over-forcefully cajoling a client to approve an idea if it's (1) actually underwhelming work and (2) if the client voiced good reasons for why they didn't care for the work.

(Like, I think there's a tragic element to Abraham Menken complaining about SC's plans to upgrade Menken's with, "Why would I want to own a store that I wouldn't want to shop in?" However, he was deferring to Rachel since she'd be taking over the store and she was gung-ho about wanting a more expensive store. )

However, the necessary component of this progression in Peggy's career is that- she's responsible for being fully in control of the creative for Heinz. That's the trade-off. There's the thrill of selling an idea to one of the agency's most important clients (see the champagne celebration for selling "Heinz: Something Never Change" in The Codfish Ball), having a famous and probably ubiquitous ad to put in your portfolio, and becoming ever-more important to the agency which is a road to raises or failing that, bragging grounds in an interview with another agency. However, it also comes with the obligation of....having to sell the idea.

Peggy seemed to be under the delusion that she was due the prestige of being fully in control of Heinz but without any of the responsibility to sell and it was up to Don to ram her favorite idea down Raymond's throat so Peggy could win on Try #1 or then Try #2. Bullshit. If she has the account, that's on her. If Peggy didn't feel experienced enough to sell to a Raymond and she didn't feel ready for the pressure of handling one of their most important clients on her own, she could have said that to Don. However, she didn't- instead she acted like Don was personally fucking up her own account and presentation....by not verbally beating Raymond into buying her ideas.

Now granted, you could argue that it's on Don, the Creative Director, to decide if Peggy was experienced and ready enough to handle Heinz. I think the best argument you can make against Don to to query why he wasn't in charge of Heinz since it was among SCDP's most important clients in the laggard early S5 period. That's a fair point, to an extent. It makes sense for him to manage Heinz since he was Creative Director and Heinz buying their idea was arguably crucial for their business during their uneasy recovery since losing Lucky Strike. However, the only "victims" here, to the extent that they exist, were the other partners at SCDP and NOT Peggy. It's good for Peggy to have a shot at managing such an important account, even if no one can deliver favorable results to her on her own job but her. It's arguably NOT GREAT, BOB for the agency to keep flying and entertaining Raymond for failed meetings and potentially lose Raymond if he keeps rejecting their ideas, if Don's greater experience, reputation (and IMO, talent and presentation skills) could sell an idea faster.

Still, though, I grant some credence to that idea. However, even then, I'm mostly Team Don there too, at least in terms of A Little Kiss and to a lesser extent, Far Away Places. I find it incredibly believable that the first and even the first two meetings weren't really expected to result in a SALE of an idea, whether Don or Peggy were managing the meeting and Don was using these first meetings as worst case scenario, test cases and best case scenario, actual pitches.

Don: You know what, Raymond? This is our job from here on out. We'll make you happy.
Raymond: I'm really sorry about that.
Don: Please, this is a process.

Peggy (pissily): But I guess I thought you'd come in here and tell them how good it was.
Don: Do I really want to waste an hour and a half shoving it down his throat only to have him pull the plug at the last minute? This is business that came in over the transom. We didn't pitch it. He has every right to make us work for it.
Peggy (pissily again): I wish I would have known that. I would have saved this for round two.
Don: We'll get him next time.

It's right that Raymond took a chance on the agency without agreeing to any work, and deserved a number of meetings where the agency proved their creative to him. So yeah, it makes sense that Don wasn't reading any of these preliminary meetings where Peggy didn't sell her idea as a "make it break it" event or a "big disappointment" when Peggy didn't sell because Don expected it to take awhile while they still figured out what Raymond wanted and showed their Creative departments breadth of ideas and commitment. In all cases, it looked like the obvious way to Raymond's "heart" were to listen to him, and spend time with them and make them feel valued.

Certainly, Raymond, as a characters, consistently turned on anyone who took a high-handed attitude with him and didn't take him seriously (his first agency, the exec at Heinz ketchup, Peggy in Far Away Places). Giving Raymond a number of concept meetings with a patient copywriter, taking him out to a number of dinners, entertaining his idea to try signing the Rolling Stones to do his ad seemed like exactly what the doctor ordered to engender his trust. And shoving an idea that Raymond didn't care for down his throat seems like something Raymond turns on with a vengeance.

Yes, you could argue that Don's strategy was mistaken because Raymond was ready to fire them by The Codfish Ball after two meetings...but I think that 95 percent of Raymond's impulse to (actually angrily and passive-aggressively) fire them was because Peggy screamed at him for not liking her ideas, while disparaging beans as a product and that ticked Raymond off, even if he already insisted that she be thrown off his business right after the Far Away Places meeting.

Within A Little Kiss, Peggy is a real piece of work. She didn't sell her idea on her first try to Raymond- sad, but it's not the end of the world. Don showed up to the meeting, and dangled his feet in the water ("Are you as excited about this as we are?") but as the boss, didn't hard-sell it. Then, Don explained his refusal to hard-sell with a very credible, convincing argument as a salesman who's been around the block. Don wasn't mad at Peggy, he wasn't disappointed, he just matter-of-factly said that this project would take time.

Note, Stan thought Peggy was being ridiculous too. Peggy chooses to make this disappointment entirely personal about Don, and reveals the dysfunctionality of her side of their relationship.

Peggy: Like we have nothing else to do. Did you believe him in there?
Stan: The guy didn't like it. What was he supposed to say?
Peggy: What he usually says. "Hey, buddy, you got such great ideas, open your own agency." The clients are right all of a sudden? I don't recognize that man.
He's kind and patient.
Stan: And it galls you.
Peggy: No, it concerns me.

Number one, I can't picture Don saying, "Hey, buddy, you got such great ideas, open your own agency" to a client, especially a high-level one. It's so gauche and inelegant, lacking in all persuasive appeal. Don's hard-sells to clients when he's trying to get them to buy his approach have an attention-getting harshness, but they're elegantly worded and even more, have analytical reasons why his approach will aid their business ("You've just given every girls who wears your lipstick the gift of total ownership") or emotional reasons why they need to change ("Your customers cannot be depended on anymore. Their lives have changed. They're prosperous. Over the years they've developed new tastes. They're like your daughter. Educated, sophisticated. They know full well what they deserve and they're willing to pay for it.")

Number two, I think that Peggy is pretty over-praised for truly "knowing" Don (as she appointed herself at the end of The Suitcase). Truth be told, Don is pretty unknowable. There are a lot of different versions of him- and it's impossible to figure out where the artifice stops and the sincerity begins. The viewers have a much better shot than the characters, because only the viewers are privy to even most of his different lives. However, I do think that Peggy (unlike, say teen Sally or even post-S1 Pete) goes for the cartoon-level analysis of Don based largely on her own self-interest to declare herself his equal or superior because...I dunno, Peggy was throwing tantrums about people not caring for her ideas when SHE WAS FIVE, WHADDA PRODIGY. Perfectly encapsulated in "Hey buddy, you got such great ideas, open your own agency" and her resulting, cringe-worthy attempt to Be Don and yell at Raymond into submission in Far Away Places with the assumption that the elevated "timber of her voice" is literally all she needs to make an argument on why Raymond should take back his rejection and go for the Campfire Heinz idea, without any analysis of why Campfire Beans was the right strategy besides repeating "It's young and it's beautiful. And no one else is gonna figure out how to say that about beans!"

There's a lot of irony to Peggy's explosion at Don's birthday party. Utilitarianism dominates my world outlook. So, if Don cared a whit about his birthday and was having a great time until Peggy insulted him, I'd be angrier at Peggy. However, ironically, Don cared so little about his birthday and was having such a bad time (masked by company manners and glad-handy phoniness), Peggy's "I can't stay, I have to work on the Heinz pitch.....but I guess *you* already knew that" did no real harm. It was like raw sewage water rolling off a duck's back as the duck was swimming at an EPA site lake for Don. I guess it hurt Megan's feelings- but the insult wasn't directed at Megan and IMO, Megan would have dismissed it as a gauche moment in a party filled with gauche moments (because that's what happens when you get the SCDP crew together!) if she wasn't personally hurt BY DON for resenting the party.

So, I don't accept Peggy's "Don't blame me I was drunk" bullshit explanation. She was upset that she worked on Heinz and she wasn't rewarded with an immediate, first try win and decided that was all Don's fault for not forcing Raymond to like it. So, she intentionally tried to make Don feel guilty and bad about the fact that she still had to work on Heinz.

First, Peggy wasn't that drunk at Don's party. She didn't even remotely tipsy. Second if we can't evaluate people's comments on MM because they were drunk, we couldn't analyze PRACTICALLY ANYTHING. Third, Peggy tried soberly defending her comment on its merits to Megan, trying to spark some "Don should have rammed this idea down Raymond's throat because we worked hard on it" camaraderie and enlist Don's wife in Peggy's fight with him. However, Megan just refused to have it.

Megan: I got the Vicks coupons done. I know you thought you were the only one working this weekend.
Peggy: No, I didn't.
Megan: Really? That's what you said to Don.
Peggy: I know. I just-- I had too much to drink and--
Megan: And you couldn't resist saying something obnoxious?
Peggy: Well, just so we're clear, I put in a lot of work on Heinz. So did you.
Megan: You can't even apologize. None of you can.

Although, I dunno, I kind of think that Peggy was being childish and spiteful and that never looks good. However, I don't get *too* angry because, as I said above, it had no utilitarian impact other than the comment boomeranging back to Peggy for very uncomfortable conversations with Megan and, later Don. Plus, IMO, Peggy knew that Don didn't care that it was his birthday and felt this a good time and place as any to have this conversation. Which, I suppose it was from a Don-perspective. Peggy did get to unleash and Don was hamstrung from retorting back to her because he was (a) surprised and (b) in host-mode instead of boss-mode.

Don is less correct in Far Away Places than A Little Kiss. I can completely agree with Don sizing up Raymond's reaction and making an informed choice in the meeting to not shove the Bean Ballet idea down his throat more than Don just plain not attending the meeting in Far Away Places. Perhaps even more to the point, the Bean Ballet was a good, albeit divisive, idea that seemed worth taking a chance on even if Don figured it'd be a tough sell, especially for the first meeting. Meanwhile, I have no idea why he approved the sucky Campfire Heinz Beans other than complacency and laziness.

However, even then, it's still Don's prerogative as the boss to decide when he wants to speak in a meeting and what meetings he wants to attend. It's not Peggy's prerogative to order Don's presence, especially since Don already committed that he wasn't going to hard-sell Peggy's ideas to Raymond.

After Far Away Places, Don v. Peggy doesn't heat up until Lady Lazarus. However, I've seen arguments that Don TOTALLY DROPPED mentoring Peggy in S5 because he was focused on Megan and NEVER GAVE PEGGY CREDIT. I think it's far more complicated than than that.

IMO, Don and Peggy both had an understanding that Peggy was comparatively senior at this business compared to the rest of the Creative wing (minus Stan) and should work more independently- but they differed on what that should look like. However for much of S5, Peggy acted like she graduated from needing a mentor. She didn't defer to Don's advice that (a) Raymond had every right to not go for the first idea and (b) the Bean Ballet was a "feel Raymond out" meeting as opposed to a finished product. Peggy clung to her instinct that she was entirely right that the Bean Ballet was brilliant and Raymond should have loved it from the start- she just felt she deserved Don making that a reality by yelling at Raymond and refusing to waste time on Kabookie or whatever until he bought the Bean Ballet.

Fast-forwarding briefly to Dark Shadows and Snowball:

Peggy: Everyone loves the cartoons in the New Yorker. And I thought we could do that kind with the guy crawling across the Sahara dying of thirst-- The long beard, the tattered shirt.
Only there's four guys and each one has a thought bubble above him. "Water, water, water, Sno Ball."
Don: What's the line?
Peggy: Doesn't need one.
Don: Well, if you want to stay with the New Yorker thing, maybe some kind of cryptic joke.
Peggy (really defensively): I already have the joke.
Don: Okay. (to Ginsberg) Your turn.

I think Peggy could defend how the ad was better without a joke in the context of mirroring her ideal of a New Yorker cartoon. Although, her ad needed more explanation to successfully sell to the children who'd be purchasing Snowball drinks. I thought Don's and Ginsberg's ads were also unsuccessful at selling to children, but they were better than Peggy's. However, again, Don can't exactly mentor Peggy if she believes that she's graduated so far past his advice that she doesn't even need to entertain his edit in a meeting with an attempt at a line to see how it meshes with her idea.

The natural response is what Don did in S5- lay on his expectations for Peggy and just expect her to perform, if she believes that she's beyond further instruction and training wheels.

In Tea Leaves, she was rightfully irritated that she wouldn't be put on the Mohawk business because she was a woman. However, she still earned a huge privilege and step-up in her work status by being chosen to find and be the first-round interview for the next copywriter. That's power, right there- especially for someone who had a problem with many of the SCDP creative-hires (Stan, Megan, Danny). This time- she gets to pick who she works with and they owe her their job. Ironically, Peggy was more irritated that she liked Ginsberg's work but he was a potentially dangerous loose canon than her exclusion from Mohawk business. However, that's one of the interesting realistic subtleties of this show. A powerful, insane Ginsberg would fuck up Peggy's work-life far more than not adding Mohawk to her already full plate of assignments.

However, Peggy did get to do most of the picking for her next work partner. Roger and Don both congratulated her for a successful hire. Understandably, Peggy was so sour and irritated through the entire transaction that the partners' compliments didn't even register because she was pre-occupied by whether Ginsberg's unpredictable, abrasive personality was a good trade-off for his talent (which could also be a threat to her)- but you know, THAT'S "welcome to being a manager" type problems.

In Lady Lazarus, I was, again, almost entirely on Don's side albeit with some understanding for how Peggy was in an undesirable (although pretty universal across many workplaces and social situations) position. Megan *did* put Peggy in an uncomfortable spot by lying about her whereabouts to get out of work early to an audition. However, it wasn't SO TERRIBLE. Peggy just had to honestly say that she didn't know where Megan was when Don called looking for her. Peggy exercised her righteous supervisor authority and her righteous "You put me a bad position" moral authority and her ridiculous "you owe advertising your life's work because it's a competitive field, even if you're not enjoying your job" NON-righteousness to really let Megan have it in the ladies' room.

However, that should have been the end of it. Peggy was put an awkward spot for one phone call- not good, but it was over. Instead, Peggy decided to take her attitude into the Cool Whip meeting and let such an inconsequential event affect her work because she was so high on her righteousness and role in this Don/Megan/Peggy drama from the night before. Stan and Ken were quietly enjoying and evaluating the Megan/Don Cool Whip scene; Peggy had to interrupt the skit with a frustrated and sarcastic JUST TASTE IT! because she lacked the maturity to just evaluate the work instead of clinging to last night's non-drama.

And then, Peggy took that attitude with her into when she was called on to play "Mrs. Draper" in front of the Cool Whip execs. (Who, btw, I think were a little bit weird in how much they were looking forward to Don/Megan's little skit. I think it's so weirdly funny. It's not that big of a deal, Head of Deserts!)

But first and foremost, the Don/Peggy Cool Whip script was a failure because Peggy didn't memorize her side of the script, right down to confusing "Just taste it!" with "Just try it!"- even though Peggy sarcastically interrupted the skit with "Just taste it" in just the meeting before and Don reiterated his attachment to that tagline because he has hoping to make it a universal catch-phrase. There's really no good excuse for that. Of course, Peggy was smart enough to memorize a short little skit in a day. *I* can instantly see the big difference between "Just taste it" and "Just try it", and I'm not even in a profession that's all about the nuances of very short taglines. She was unprofessionally distracted with her own grievances and wanted to spend her time pouting instead of working.

If one of Peggy's work assignments was to perform a skit for the Cool Whip execs, she should have memorized the script. I don't even understand how someone can argue against that. (In my read of the pro-Peggy group, reviewers just tend to bypass how she tanked the presentation and just skipped right to the fight without the inciting incident of Peggy's incompetence.)

I fault Don for not trying to improvise along with Peggy to make their performance less humiliating. Don lost his cool and he was transparently upset with Peggy for not knowing her lines, right down to glaring at her and refusing to accept her "Just try it" bungle. LOL at:

Peggy: Don't you wanna know what it is?
Don: It's Cool Whip.
Peggy: That's right, it's Cool Whip. Just try it.
Don: Honey, is that really what you want?
Peggy: Yes, I want you to try it.
Don: Don't you want me to taste it?
Peggy: Yes, just taste it.

Don should have tried working *with* Peggy in the script since she didn't know her lines, to mitigate the humiliation to themselves, Ken, and the agency in front of Cool Whip. He was also unprofessionally focused on his (completely justified) anger at Peggy (and angst over Megan quitting) to work productively for the agency. However, afterwards, Don was completely within his rights to admonish Peggy and he was completely appropriate in this start of a scolding:

Ken: Look, I think you did great. It wasn't what it was about anyway. They know we're going to cast it.
Don: You think the actress can remember to say, "Just taste it"?

Then:

Peggy: You didn't want to rehearse. You ran it through one time half-assed.
Don: I've done it a bunch. I knew my lines.

The first step in performing a script is memorization. It was Peggy's job to memorize her side of the script, most pivotally the three-word tag line. It wasn't her boss's job to run through lines with Peggy to make sure that Peggy had everything memorized because Peggy's hand needed to be held to get her to use her brain. Don HAD already memorized, rehearsed and performed the script (to the first Cool Whip exec who liked it and wanted to show it to the Head of Deserts).

Ideally, Don would rehearse more with Peggy. However, they only had a day to coordinate their schedules and rehearse. Now I'm sure that Don being Don, his schedule in the last twenty-four hours included an UNhealthy amount of napping and drinking and yukkinig it up with Roger, maybe a movie or two. However, even with that, it's still not Don's job to make sure his employee completes her simple job. The performance could have been adequate if Peggy memorized her lines, even if she and Don didn't appear particularly well-rehearsed. It wouldn't have looked commercial-ready perfect, but it could have been professional-looking.

Plus going back to Megan's "You can't apologize" complaint, Peggy is like, constitutionally unable to take responsibility for her own business failures. As I see it, Peggy's failure here was more embarrassing and egregious than Harry signing the wrong band instead of the Rolling Stones who hadn't arrived yet. However, supposedly obnoxious, arrogant, slimy Harry took responsibility and apologized and Peggy didn't but instead, took this chance to blame Don and start a beyond-inappropriate conversation about why Megan quit her job.

Ken: Do you think Megan would come back and do it in the office?
Peggy (sourly and angrily regarding Don): Megan is not the problem.

Peggy's little "defense" of Megan is so unneeded and frankly, disingenuous. Ken wasn't saying that Megan was the problem. Instead, Ken was trying to side-step the fact that *Peggy* was the problem, to resolve the situation with Megan coming back to play the skit. Megan would be the SOLUTION.

Peggy wanted to cling the the fact that DON was the problem for creating the whole "Mr. and Mrs. Draper copy-write and perform a Cool Whip ad" dynamic in the first place that necessarily makes Peggy feel like she's less the heroine of her story than she should be and for not rehearsing the skit enough so that Peggy knew her lines and performed the skit well.

However, Peggy can only take those arguments so far. I actually think Peggy would ride the "It's Don's job to rehearse me into memorizing the script" horse as far as she wanted just like the, "It's Don's responsibility to force Raymond to love my bean ad ideas, even though I was tasked with the presentation" horse. However, I don't think a non-Peggy person would agree with her, beyond Bert Cooper's "You have that little girl running everything" statement which I don't think Peggy wants. Because to defend Peggy completely on a professionally level is to that she is incapable of keeping her cool with an important client or memorizing the lines on a two-minute spot and most importantly, the tag line.

Don: You didn't want her there! You were threatened by everything about her.

Here, I think Don steps over the line with the "threatened by everything about her." Actually, I don't think he's wrong on the dynamics. Peggy WAS threatened by Megan and while, Peggy held herself back from taking that out on Megan, she's sure been taking it out on Don. However, you don't SAY that- it's rude to point out.

Peggy: I spent more time training her than you did and eight months defending her.
Don: Defending her? She was great at it!

True. Peggy's "defending her" is disingenuous. Megan didn't need defending. Like:

Peggy: She thinks advertising is stupid.

If Peggy's intention was to defend Megan ("Megan's not the problem!"), she wouldn't put words in Megan's mouth that Megan thinks advertising is stupid. How on earth is that a defense of Megan to Ken and especially, Don? It's not. It's actually Peggy stirring up shit to put Megan in a worse light, because Peggy is still competing in a bizarre, twisted way that she's the better "Mrs. Draper" in the Cool Whip ad.

Don: No, she thinks the people she worked with are cynical and petty.
Peggy: I did everything right, and I am still getting it from you. You know what? You are not mad at me, so shut up!

Again, Don was right on the facts- Megan specifically complained that the SCDP employees were "cynical" and she hated working in that environment. However while Megan complained about SCDP employees generally and Peggy, specifically, as "cynical", the motor behind Megan's comment was that she's married to Mr. Cynical.

And it's...not nice for Don to try to score points on the argument based on Megan's opinions when Megan's not there to defend them in this context. He should have led this dance of argument- and kept Megan out of it. Like Peggy, Don was also unprofessional with his emotional involvement and decided that he'd rather talk about Megan i.e. come up with a comforting line that Megan left SCDP because EVERYONE ELSE is an asshole and it has nothing to do with him or Megan rejecting his vocation.

Like, I really think Peggy drew Don into this "Megan thinks X", "No, Megan think Y" nonsense argument which is unproductive and unprofessional, but yet, where Don wanted to go because he'd like to make Megan leaving other people's fault. Peggy wanted to go there because it's more fun than discussing her failure to memorize the script. Peggy's allegation that Megan thinks advertising is stupid was another one of Peggy's intentional "flash the red cape of infuriating personal hurt at Don the Bull to make him upset and angry" type points.

Still Don's the manager and Megan's husband. He should insist on doing Megan the courtesy of not talking about her when she's not there, and well, can't defend herself by being all, "I didn't mean you, Ken! And I guess, I meant you, Peggy- but I said *cynical*, not petty" or I dunno, probably something more artful and in Megan's case, more phony. Like:



At any rate, the germane point was Peggy's failure to memorize the lines- and Don ineffectively let Peggy distract from that issue when he should have stuck to it as the manager.

There is a subtle, softening strain that Peggy was extra-upset here because she did train and supervise Megan. IMO, Peggy felt like Megan leaving was a referendum on how Peggy mentors and even a referendum on Peggy's merit as a person since she's so committed to advertising. That probably hurts. Interestingly, I think Peggy and Don were having the same guilty "Is this quitting about me?" thoughts.

Don: Look, I know it's uncomfortable for you with me there. There's a shadow over everything. I put you in a terrible position. There are twenty firms that would be glad to have you.

Joan: I'm not gonna lie-- I did not see it coming. I thought she would fail here.
Peggy: I feel bad. I think maybe I was harder on her, scared her away.
Joan: Second wives-- It's like they have a playbook.
Peggy: I don't think she's like that.
Joan: Peggy, she's going to be a failing actress with a rich husband.
Peggy: No, I think she's good at everything. I think she's just one of those girls.
Joan: Then you had every right to be hard on her. Did you know that he met Betty Draper doing a print ad? Did you know she was a model? That's the kind of girl Don marries.

Now, I don't think that's even an explanation, let alone, an excuse for some of where they went wrong. I really think Peggy didn't memorize the script because she was obsessing about the DRAH-MA of the phone call before and these kinds of upsets, can leave Peggy flailing like an upside down beetle where she can't focus on work. I think Don deliberately chose to not improvise, but admonish Peggy in-script with the "Don't you want me to TASTE it?" because he was cranky that he wasn't doing this with Megan but instead an unprepared Peggy, and lacked the discipline to put a lid on his justifiable anger at Peggy through the script. However, I do think it's behind Peggy's "I did everything right!" line and Don casting about to blame Megan leaving advertising because the SCDP personnel are cynical and petty.

Peggy's and Don next confrontation is in The Other Woman where I'm actually mostly on Peggy's side. First, the ep opens on the debate that I mentioned above- should SCDP put its women/minority copywriters on accounts, even if they assume that the execs from those companies only want straight WASP males working their account. I wasn't indifferent to how difficult it is for SCDP to fairly assign its staff while also not selling itself and even its minority employees short back in the 1960s. However, I still felt that Peggy should be put on Jaguar, as the most senior copywriter. While I think Peggy somewhat misplaces/overdoes feeling sorry for herself by longing for the lobster lunch in the Jaguar room while I'm sure that no one would object to her coming in and helping herself to a plate, it's poignantly emblematic that she was shut out of working on the most exciting project going on at the agency because of her gender.

More to the Peggy/Don point, at this point, I'd say that it was incumbent on Don as a manager to figure out to keep Peggy happy, given that he knew that he was letting her down by keeping her off Jaguar and given that Peggy was indispensable since she was heading up all other business while he was busy on the Jaguar competition. I mean, I'd say that it's *generally* a manager's job to make sure that his/her employees are happy, especially the long-term, valuable employees. People argue that Don had been failing at that all season long (and going back earlier) and not just, during the Jaguar-competition weeks.

However, as I've argued above, I really didn't find a lot of fault in how Don managed Peggy in S4-5 (pre-The Other Woman), other than less than five flashes of OTT temper. I think part of the problem was that Peggy really never had another boss besides Don (and Joan in S1, but even then Joan could order S1 Peggy around but she was more of a yenta Queen Bee than the source of Peggy's assignments). She went straight from secretarial school to SC.

Meanwhile, Don sends mixed messages because he lurches between closeness and distance, "I admire you" and "You're my screw-up employee", "You're work is good" and "This is crap". A lot of it is fair and has its roots in Peggy's actual behavior that he's reacting to- but it's also very conditional on Don's moods.

Moreover, I think Peggy is aware on some level that there's some psychodrama playing out in Don's head that affects whether she's getting carrots or sticks (which is quite astute and I think part of why Peggy thrives in her relationship with him instead of wilting ala early seasons Betty). I think Peggy deals with this flux by clinging to Don-in-carrot-mode is what's TYPICAL of bosses and what SHE REALLY DESERVES while Don-in-stick-mode is the pure result of Don's obvious assholicness and issues. However, Peggy is right only to a verrry limited extent. Peggy also gets lots of license to talk back and be disorganized and some neediness from Don that puts Peggy in an unnaturally powerful position....because of Don's internal psychodrama. But then, Don will scold Peggy or give her undesirable assignments, just because that's the way of the world and the ordinary way to run an ad agency and it has very little to do with Don's palette of flaws and emotional problems or it does, but a nice, well-adjusted guy would do the same thing but for different reasons.

However to get back to my earlier point, Don could justifiably believe that he was just dealing with Peggy as a normal employer through much of S5 and if she's unhappy in her job, he doesn't know what to do about it since he seemed to be treating her better than most Creative Directors treat their copywriters up and down Madison Avenue. However, in the Jaguar run-up, he should have known that he was (a) being unfair by not including the most senior copywriter in the most exciting thing going on at the agency while (b) still relying on her expertise to manage all other accounts while rest of the Creative staff worked on Jaguar, so he was asking a lot of her.

So, like to start, Don shouldn't have dismissed Peggy going to Paris to film the Chevallier Blanc spot out of hand. If it had been a few weeks ago, I'd say that Don's immediate "It's Ginsberg's account" response would be fair. However, he should have known that it's very unfair to give junior Michael Ginsberg both a spot on the Jaguar team and the ability to go to Paris on Peggy's idea while Ginsberg was in the Jaguar lobster room because he has a penis. However, lol, but Don was dealing with same Ginsberg-conundrum that Peggy was dreading in Tea Leaves- how to handle Ginsberg's abrasive personality with his talent. And true to form, Don instantly gravitated to the option that seemed the best for Don (i.e. send to Ginsberg to Paris) without any regard to who was being screwed.

And you know, ordinarily, I'd say that Peggy was being unprofessional to immediately snap back that it was HER idea so she should go to Paris. However, as Don started the meeting harshly reminding everyone that he only had five seconds before he had to get back to Jaguar, Peggy didn't have time to pull Don aside or something. If she was going to speak up and try to get on the Paris trip, she had to do it then and there, in front of Ken and Harry (who were also there to vouch for how she impressively came up the "Lady Godiva in Paris" idea on the conference call.)

And then, Don threw a bunch of dollar bills in Peggy's face yelling at her to go to Paris- which would be HORRIBLE even if I didn't already agree with Peggy that she deserves something like enjoying the perks on her successful ideas while she's servicing all of these other accounts because she can't work on Jaguar. It's never OK by any standard. Don's frustrations over Jaguar and recent anger because he just heard a proposal to whore out Joan for Jaguar five minutes ago are not good excuses or even particularly sympathetic explanations. I'll cover the Jaguar issue in my next post (because it's practically BEGS for a UO meta)- but IMO, Don undermines any reading of like, gentlemanly chivalry to Joan in how he throws money at Peggy in the next scene. However, I think I'll actually discuss that in the next post ....which hasn't been written.

However, even though, Don actually was abusive and straight-up terrible in The Other Woman, THAT'S actually the ep where Peggy stews and leaves, but still leaves with a tremendous and heart-felt thank you and olive branch instead of with a fight or telling-off as opposed to Public Relations or The Suitcase or A Little Kiss or Lady Lazarus where Don was far more correct than The Other Woman. I want you to know that the day you saw something in me my whole life changed. And since then, it's been my privilege to not only be at your side, but to be treated like a protegee and for you to be my mentor and my champion.

Why the discrepancy? I do think that a lot of it that Peggy is LEAVING- so there's (a) little point in litigating her correctness and his wrongness, (b) charitably, she'd like to soften the blow of her leaving him with a nice speech, and (c) cynically, she'd like to make sure that her bridges to him and SCDP (on the day that it just became a far more prestigious agency) are intact if she ever needs a reference or job there again. However, I think perhaps more to the point, Peggy was mature to leave what had become a bad environment for her since The Other Woman and just a place where she wasn't happy since Megan's promotion for the obvious reasons- an old employer doesn't own you, the money-throwing, taken alone, is a solid reason to quit because it's an act of abuse and humiliation.

However, it's also mature because it's a definitive action that Peggy was in charge of her own destiny and professional fulfillment. At this point, CGC/Ted was painted as the enemy and that was probably Peggy's feeling as she motorcyled around an empty soundstage, hoping to bankrupt CGC's new-business budget for the year. However, she wanted to leave and go after the new experience to grow which necessarily meant putting aside childish dreams that this was Advertising Camp and her boss was her camp counselor, in charge of giving the best time and running lines with her to make sure she memorized a skit and going to her meetings to bully any mean ole client who didn't like her ideas.

Peggy doesn't specifically repudiate herself in every point that say, *I* made against her in my meta because life doesn't work that way. However, I do think that she made a particular choice to leave as nicely and as complimentary-to-Don as possible even though he very recently was a total asshole to her. IMO, it's, in part, because Peggy had an epiphany that all of this time, she's been waiting on Don to make her dreams come true even though actually Peggy is in charge of making her dreams come true, and just because Don cut her first few breaks and gave her first few lessons and provided her the assignments and feedback that ended up making her portfolio, doesn't mean that he's responsible for guaranteeing her professional success. Being a mentor isn't an albatross or perennial blank check. I think that's why Peggy cut him a break on the money-throwing and the aggressive way that he started off opposing her choice to leave as much as the careerist motive to keep up a good professional relationship and the sympathetic motive to soften the blow of her leaving.

I think this lives in how Freddy both encourages her to leave because it sounds like she's hit a brick wall because she's not on Jaguar and the money-throwing was disgusting, but Freddy pointedly (a) makes Peggy's career *Peggy's* responsibility and (b) deliberately does not cast SCDP as a hostile work environment or Don as a particularly or even halfway untenable boss. (copying because I really like this conversation)

See:

Freddy: So he threw the money in your face?
Peggy: I don't even want to talk about it. I've never had more responsibility. I'm on everything but Jaguar.
Freddy: I worked on Plymouth at NW Ayer. Car guys are a bunch of creeps.
Peggy: They're all a bunch of creeps.
Freddy: I can never tell, ballerina, if you're ambitious or you just like to complain.
Peggy: Why can't it be both?
Freddy: Well, if this was about work and not feelings, you'd make a move.
Peggy: You're right. I could take a couple of meetings and get an offer and throw that at Don's face.
Freddy: Or you can do what everybody else does-- Have a bunch of meetings, pick a place and leave.
Peggy: Don't think I haven't thought about it.
Freddy: Well, you'd get to find out if you could shine elsewhere. And I know you can. And you'd let him know that you're not some secretary from Brooklyn who's dying to help out.
Peggy: I don't know if I can do that.
Freddy: Sure you could. You could hire a headhunter or you could buy a friend a piece of pie.
Of course, if you do move, you can't complain if I gave Draper a call on my own behalf.
Peggy: What if Don finds out you helped me?
Freddy: Don's a big boy. If he was having this conversation with you and he wasn't the subject of it, he'd tell you to leave in a second.

It's a conversation of worldliness. The world is full of creeps and assholes, or more the point, these high pressure, high income inequality, creative jobs are hard and foster unhealthy attitudes up and down Madison Avenue, up and down Broadway, throughout Hollywood, everywhere on Wall Street. The best thing that you can do for yourself is to not make yourself beholden to anyone because familiarity breeds contempt and just one-line on a creative resume could be a problem down the road.

Actually, I think that was partly Freddy's issues. He spent decades at SC- and sadly, his longevity wasn't enough to protect his job both when his alcoholism spiraled out of control and presumably when Lucky Strike left SCDP.

I think Peggy absolutely takes that attitude of, "I'm in charge of my destiny and BEING A GROWNUP- so I'll treat past mentors with respect and the friendly but confident PLAYING AT YOUR LEVEL networking" to The Phantom when Don runs into her in the movies. It's embodied in everything she says in the conversation- her friendly greeting, her crediting the "going to the movies to clear out the cobweb" idea to Don, her "sage" comeback on cigarette money being easy to have instead of get, her rather forward but pretty adorable proposal for a double date with him and Megan.

Don, meanwhile, goes through a number of emotions and strategies- genuine happiness to run into Peggy, fishing on whether she's really happy at CGC if she's at the movies, self-indulgent mopeiness that she moved on recovered by half genuine-half facile praise when Peggy queried him on it and he saw this wasn't an argument he'd win, half-personally interested- half-competitive sleuthing on CGC's latest project, and then, after he's already spent on his ulterior professional objectives and he's getting sadder and more withdrawn by the milisecond at hearing about Peggy's whole separate great life at CGC while he thinks he's being thrown some double date reunion tour dog-bone of awkwardness with her, Megan, and Abe, he's bailed out the start of the movie, Casino Royale. It's a quiet little tour de force- and I've watched the scene a lot. ;-)

2. This is mostly Don/Peggy- but within this vein of being Peggy-critical and discussing the ethics of minority/women copywriters. I was on Roger's side in the Roger v. Peggy conflict in Dark Shadows.

Like, yay, on Peggy for milking Roger of all of his carrying cash in Mystery Date in exchange for her doing last-minute work on Mohawk and then, lying that she was given a week to do it to bail out his procrastinator, lazy (albeit hawt) ass. Yay for Peggy splitting the distinction elegantly:

Peggy: You want me to work up an entire corporate image campaign for $10?
Roger: I can make you do it for nothing. I'm the boss.
Peggy: You're right. The work is $10, the lie is extra.

Like, that's really learning THAT'S WHAT THE MONEY IS FOR.

However, but then, Roger didn't do anything wrong by giving *Ginsberg* an assignment to prep him with ideas for his dinner with Manishevitz and paying *Ginsberg* a lot of money under the table. Peggy never owned that entire gig to be Roger Sterling's "extra cash under the table copywriter as Roger tries resurrecting his basically dead career with his fortunes from the past."

Roger: Anything for me in there?
Peggy: Why don't you have Ginsberg get your lunch? That Mohawk work I did for you was great. And I kept it a secret, which is more than I can say for Ginsberg.
Roger: It's Manischewitz. He was perfect for it.
Peggy: I'm sick of hearing people think that way. I'm not an airplane either. I can write for anything.
Roger: You know, in the old buildings, they used to have an executive elevator.
Peggy: You are not loyal. You only think about yourself.
Roger: Were we married? Because you're thinking about yourself, too. That's the way it is. It's every man for himself.

Although, Roger somewhat sells himself short by being all WERE WE MARRIED like that's an arrangement he treats with more respect and fidelity than what copywriter he pays under the table. Because, LOL. However, for the copywriter arrangement, I don't think Roger owed Peggy a second job at all.

Moreover, to get into a similar discussion about minority/female copywriters, I totally heard the anti-Semitism behind Roger's discussions about his Manishevitz pitch. Dude could not propose the idea to Ginsberg- without count em' like, four anti-Semetic remarks in a few bars of dialogue.

However, still, I actually do think that minority/female copywriters have a higher probability of writing good advertisements for products targeted to their gender/ethnicity. Without a doubt, *Peggy* argued for her position and worth a number of times because she knows female products or a woman's point of view better than her colleagues.

Although, to be fair, Manishevitz's intended strategy somewhat split the difference. They wanted to sell more Manishevitz to the goyim. I think that Ginsberg has drunk far more kosher wine and has a deeper emotional connection to a Jewish food-product (even though he seemingly doesn't keep Kosher i.e. the lobster lunch that he was cheering). However, Peggy is pretty well-placed to evaluate how to sell an extremely sweet, unique, oftentimes divisive and mocked (although I'm a fan!) wine like Manishevitz to the goyim. However, Peggy doesn't know that was Manishevitz's strategy and reason to approach SCDP in the first place.

As I'm free-styling this meta, I find more reasons to be pro-Peggy here. I do think that feminine products or ladies' beauty products are more exclusively the domain of female copywriters than Manishevitz or, heck Menken's Department Store is the domain of Jewish copywriters. Peggy and Ginsberg can enjoy Manishevitz equally, even if Ginsberg may feel more of a connection to it or remember it from more holidays. However, they're evaluating that somewhat religion-specific brand against their gender-neutral interest in wine. However, Ginsberg is just far less likely to experience a bra or lipstick as a general product like Peggy, and thus has less to say on Belle Jolie or Maidenform.*

So, Peggy isn't entirely hypocritical to market herself as The Woman's POV but dispute that Ginsberg was particularly right for Manishevitz. However, it's still Roger's prerogative on who to hire. She and Roger didn't strike up a bond in Mystery Date- she took him for all the cash he was carrying. There was no confidantes, in a fox-hole, bosom buddy, non-compete loyalty here.

As a smart (although IMO overrated but still lovable) copywriter, Ginsberg had mixed results with women's products. Strangely, though, the Butler guys went nuts for his "Cinderella Pursued! Richard Speck Theme!" shoe ad and admired how he could get into women's heads- and I thought the idea was disturbing and horrible for a shoe ad. However, his saucy and funny but yes, imperfect "Always expensive, never cheap" Topaz pantyhose ad was booed and hated by the Topaz pantyhose guys while they kvetched about how Peggy/woman's POV wasn't there. To a great degree, Ginsberg's one-liners display more brilliance than his ads- the Topaz guys are Philistines for not being utterly charmed and convinced by:

Topaz exec: I hate the word "cheap.
Ginsberg: And so do I! That's why I put the word NEVER in front of it.