Mad Men and Englishmen

The fourth season of Mad Men is well underway now, and last night's episode saw 1964 topple into 1965. After showing us occasional hints of the cultural earthquake to come (esp Midge's beatnik friends in the first season), the big show is finally starting. Last night's show flagged just about everything to come -- Joan's abortions, her husband getting ready to ship out to Vietnam, and the Berkely sit-ins of 1964-65. The last days of the old regime went out in style though, with Lane and Don spending their New Year's Eve getting drunk on scotch at the office, watching Godzilla, putting steaks on their genitals, and picking up hookers. You think that's bad behaviour? Wait till we see what the kids get up to this year.

What will it mean for the ad agency? As always, Natasha Vargas-Cooper's footnotes to the episode are excellent, and this point is bang-on:

In the 60s, the symbolic role that youth played in American culture—honesty to self, renewal, rejection of ancient values—became a driving market force. This notion was really that becoming an adult meant participating in consumer culture. This is perhaps the most loathsome legacy of the Boomer's ascent to cultural dominance: the perpetual teenage mentality of rebellion through buying things.

We know where this ends up.