The AMC series Mad Men continued its clumsy dance with race on Madison Avenue.
The third episode featured a cornucopia of cultural cues.
A Black elevator operator was briefly acknowledged by one of the admen. Through three weeks, the program has now depicted a Black waiter, two sassy Black bathroom attendants, a Black cafeteria worker and a Black elevator operator. Get ready for a Black preacher and Black maid in upcoming installments.
The newly married Pete Campbell returned to find Asians (dressed in stereotypical peasant garb and accompanied by a live rooster) in his office—and one of them actually screamed at him in an exaggerated accent. The butt of the gag whooped, “Who put the Chinaman in my office?” A secretary later explained, “They paid an Oriental family to be in Mr. Campbell’s office.” Guess it was a common practical joke in the 1960s.
The show awkwardly pushed the humor further. Agency boss Roger Sterling griped, “I want the Chinaman out of the building by lunch.” To which Don Draper quipped, “I’m still waiting on my shirts,” as his associates guffawed in the background.
Campbell then announced, “The Chinamen are out of the building. I have a feeling in an hour I’ll want to take them out again.” More laughter erupted. Ha-ha. Velly funny.
To push racist equality, the admen also sneered about advertising legend Bill Bernbach being a Jew.
And this all happened in the first 15 minutes.
It sure feels like politically-incorrect imagery is being forced into the storyline. There was even a nod to Native Americans during a scene with kids playing Cowboys and Indians at a birthday party (a boy hobbled with crutches portrayed the Indian). Yet the biased behavior and hijinks seem somewhat sanitized. Today’s Madison Avenue regularly serves up much worse offenses.
Can hardly wait to discover how Mad Men integrates Latinos (technically, Bernbach and his crew introduced the National Federation of Coffee Growers’ Juan Valdez around this period). Perhaps Campbell will discover a mariachi band and smelly burro behind his desk.
[See Essays 4232 and 4235 for commentary on the first two episodes of Mad Men.]
4 comments:
HJ: All that stuff is why critics are getting so excited over this series. As our friend Mr. Parker notes, it sure ain't about the writing, which makes Knots Landing read like Dostoyevsky.
But the whole "they're showing how racist people were in those days" thing makes critics all warm and fuzzy.
Also- was talking to a frined in "the biz." He was saying that it's sort of a cliche in Hollywood that once a show with a strong creative force (e.g. David Chase) is over, the underlings will all go off and get lots of money for doing their own projects. And that those projecs inevitably fail because anyone with real talent would not be able to work on a show where someone else is so dominant and that basically the underlings were all water boys. Oh, and that AMC is new enough to the "original series" game not to know all of that.
It is ironic that the things you point out are relevant to the advertising industry too. That is, we often see people associated with great ad campaigns being hired at high salaries at different shops, only to fail miserably (and be revealed as lesser talents).
You’re probably right about critics being intrigued by things like historical racism. It’s just strange the way Mad Men forces the issues, compartmentalizing the points in such awkward fashion. The “they’re showing how racist people were in those days” is too self-aware, if that’s the right term. The judgment is blatant, making it all preachy and dumb. Never watched the Sopranos, but I’m guessing that like, say, Scorsese’s The Departed, the program presented things like racism and discrimination in a more natural and honest way. I mean, filling a guy’s office with “Orientals” is pretty messed up.
You're assumptions are correct, HJ. I mean Archie Bunker's racism seemed more natural than these guys.
I guess that's sort of the point though: These are supposed to be reflections of "us" -- you know, the people we might have been back then. Archie Bunker and Tony Soprano were clearly not people like us- they're blue collar and crass and all that.
But here are a bunch of likeable (sorta) intelligent (sorta) white collar guys and they're racist and drunk and all that.
It's the whole idea that we can finally look back on the year 1960 as if none of us were actually there that has critics so intrigued. Because the writing is just so bad and you're not being overly sensitive in noticing how forced the "now I'll make a surprisingly racist remark and no one will flinch" or "now I'll have a drink at a time that would be horribly inappropriate in 2007 and no one will flinch" moments are.
And as for the parallel to the ad biz-- I was hoping you'd pick up on that-- it's probably even more true in adland than Hollywood.
My bet is the next black character(s) will be some Motown-Berry Gordy-type looking to the mad men to give his brand some polish so they'll land on American Bandstand. any takers?
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