Mad Men Finale: Peggy and The Reality Of Being In A Coke Ad

Can Peggy have true love and a career?   I have to say, in the finale of Mad Men last night, I was disappointed that Peggy (my  favorite character, other than Roger Sterling)  was written to passively find love. What does it matter?  Is Mad Men a reflection of reality, a writer's offering of  the past, or, like advertising, a fictional spin on reality?

In an interview with Terry Gross, Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner states that the show is really about Peggy and Joan. The finale wraps up a lot of story lines neatly for us, including Peggy and Joan, but also Betty, Roger, Pete and of course, Don. Weiner has said that Joan could rule the world, and "maybe she does," he surmises; clearly in the finale, we are led to believe she just might.  She casts away love to do so.  Peggy decides to go a traditional route and stay with the company (McCann Erickson)  in order to work her way up.   After having made that decision, she finds "true love" in Stan; whether she be able to succeed and be happy is anyone's guess. In (a) reality, Peggy will probably get pregnant and be forced to quit her job and have trouble getting back into the work force.

It's all fiction, and as much fantasy as the Coke advertisement shown at the end. This is what Mad Men makes us contemplate--our lives and our pasts, our dreams and our fictions; and ultimately, what a culture run by money and advertisement/media makes us believe.   As a teenager, I was in the original set-on-a-hillside-Coke advertisement, plucked by the ad agency from the school I was attending in Rome to go stand on a hill and sing that now-famous song.  I had no idea that commercial would become legendary, perhaps if only for its silliness.   The day the commercial was shot, we were all freezing, holding our cokes, mouthing words of happiness.  I was so cold I remember asking one of the older students who was smoking if smoking would warm me up (addiction had not grabbed me yet).  My hair was long and blonde, as was the style in the early 1970's, and my classmate who was chosen to be the lead "singer" in the commercial also had long blonde hair.  Frankly, I was jealous, disappointed, questioning.  We were paid fifty dollars. Perhaps this is where I first learned about the unreal world of advertising and its dance with reality.

I may not like how Peggy was written, how Don is portrayed. I could say the ending of Mad Men felt disappointing, unreal, not believable. But then in the end, what is real, believable, satisfying?  What is "the real thing" ?

Here are some of my sketches I did during the Mad Men finale.