AMC’s Mad Men depicts the day-to-day lives of an American advertising firm located in the prominent district of Madison Avenue, its portrayal of its complex and flawed characters illustrate the attitudes of the same cosmopolitan milieu that has bred them. The shows’ aesthetic and the motivations behind characters surround the theme of the American Dream. The show’s producers have deliberately constructed a representation of what the American Dream meant in the 1960s. Therefore in this essay I will examine the period drama’s view and portrayal of consumerism, social mobility and patriotism that they believed to define the distinct nature of the decade. While the superficial meaning understood by the fictional figures themselves involve the typical image of a ‘Madison Avenue executive with the glamorous wife, comfortable suburban home, and substantial bank account’, as that is how they idolise Don Draper as having – the programme however provides a nuanced depiction of the term. Furthermore, in regards to the political connotations of the American Dream with strong emphasis on individual rights, democracy and equality; due to the premise of the period drama which is located on the upper side of Manhattan these principles are not persistent. For a British audience – to a great extent from my own experience – who’s views of the decade are dominated by the real and bleak British television programmes and films portraying the 60s with Made in Dagenham and Call the Midwife; American films such as Catch Me If You Can, Forrest Gump, Revolutionary Road and The Help. The decade in general is accompanied with the taste of social revolution in reference to the roles of the sexes, culture and race relations. Mad Men therefore, uses elements of already imprinted impressions of the 1960s and focuses on the understanding of the American Dream from the perspective of those in the firm through consumerism, social mobility and patriotism. [actual judgement].
One must first however understand the nature of Public History and the complexity of historical fiction. I personally understand Public History to be the practice of extending historical debates and a historical topic to the ‘public’ who I deem as non-academics that vary in extent of expertise on the matters of history. According to Thomas Cauvin however, the ways in which history is presented ‘does not imply a single public audience’. The television programme Mad Men’s popularity can attributed to multiple factors, the actors in the show; the witty dialogue; the aesthetic of the costumes and scenery; and the nostalgia of the period. Yet due to the wide range of people the show already appeals to for these reasons one must put them under the category of the ‘public’ – as majority of whom are not experts or academics in the period do not classify into a single specific category of audience as Cauvin suggests. But should be labeled as an audience who has nonetheless been drawn to be curious and enlightened by Mad Men’s portrayal of the 1960s. My essay will however focus on the implication and connotations of the show to a British audience as the show’s novelty one can assume to be different to that an American audience as they have the luxury of memory and nostalgia to ‘nitpick’ the information presented to them. Whereas, myself as a member of the British ‘public’ has only been exposed to the internal conflicts of the race wars in the States; and the gradual decline of the sexual oppression and misogyny through laws on equality taught at school, and the Hollywood movies and television dramas that depict them. Therefore all although some concepts of the American Dream may seem ‘obvious’ to an academic or to the average informed American viewer, the way the producers have presented it will be unique to a British audience. In addition, as the drama is a work of historical fiction centring around fictional characters who symbolise specific attitudes and serve as tools for the plot, it is vital to examine the nature of historical fictions and how the history is scrutinised for its purpose. Cauvin argues although historical fictions are constructed with the aid of historians who are expert in their fields, the genre as its name suggests is still ‘synonymous with non-reliability in the academic sphere’. Yet, in the same work he also includes Daniel Blake Smith the film-maker and writer’s thinking process in which he asks himself when writing whether this particular thing happened, and if it did not is it plausible to have happened? Thus, implying public history does not have to be accurate in the way an academic is required to be, regardless plausibility is key to producing a work that is historically accurate but creative at the same time. As a result, Matthew Weiner the writer and producer of the programme uses the fictional advertising firm with its colourful and complex people as a mechanism to ‘chronicle’ the principles and social attitudes of the 1960s accessorised with the historical events and figures of the times. [Conclusion]
An aspect of the American Dream emphasised in Mad Men is the role consumerism playing a significant role in people’s relations with each other. The drama presents the products and luxuries the people bought into eventually epitomised who they wished to be or thought they were, for example, the firm designed images of the person who would use this product and constructed the user to be appealing to the eventual consumers. In the episode ‘The Other Woman’ Don’s pitch to Jaguar centres around the type of man who would be able to own the car, whilst the car is at the heart of everyone’s desires the car defines the man who has it and therefore there is an element of control and suaveness to it which Don contracts to launch the slogan: ‘At Last. Something Beautiful You Can Truly Own’. The products the agency Sterling Cooper or Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce which is later known in the show, purely from an cultural perspective to a British audience shows elements of the technological and consumeristic change America experienced. Pitches for the Kodak Carousel slide projector, for example, is advertised through images of Don’s own family that ironically suggest a happy domestic life and a description focusing on the user again with: ‘It takes us to a place where we ache to go again’. The implication of the images, suggest the consumer would be one invested in a loving and respected domestic life. William Siska supports this view and analyses that similarly advertising to Don Draper is a metaphor for the ‘personal preoccupation with how the consumer feels when he or she consumes it’. Philip Slater especially, identifies American ‘narcissism’ in which a struggle exists in the ‘little pieces’ people see in all the things they experience or come across such as ‘houses, clothes, cars, cities, machines and even our foods’. This presentation of consumerism displays the mindset of the capital driven society – ready to shake of tradition and history for the sake of profit and vanity – the average viewer already associates with America and its stereotypes. According to Steven Miles consumerism had become the ‘very fabric of modern life’ and the social conditions in which people live in are now dominated by the market place and forced to adapt to needs of the consumer. This aspect of Mad Men enhances an already understood premises on the condition of the cosmopolitan social dynamics of America and the advancement of technology as consumerism fuels technological creativity and promotes cultural similarities between people. In an episode in the second series Don’s young daughter asks ‘are we rich?’ Sally’s questioning of her family’s position in society already address the fact that even at a young age she was able to understand a form of the superficial American Dream that we the audience know to be the product of the consumeristic society. It is this society which has enabled the employees at an agency firm that is located in Madison Avenue to rise from working class backgrounds to upper middle all down to their creativity and psychological understanding of the human desires. The association of social mobility and consumerism will be examined more closely later on. However, Mad Men clearly addresses the historical and economic role growing consumerism played in the 1960s in achieving the superficial aspects of the American Dream, while at the same time emphasising the existence of consumerism was the American Dream.
Furthermore, the programme accurately portrays the understanding of the American Dream in the 1960s as the social mobility of men and women’s social position and wealth to one that equals their talent and skill. Don’s personification of the American Dream through his extravagant lifestyle and domestic stability which to the viewers and the characters around him may be idolised as the aim of all the work people do, it is instead the contrast between his poor origins and his current position that truly depict the nature of the American dream at that period. For men, wages rose dramatically the statistics provided by the Census Bureau show the median wage of men in 1969 at $34,241 rise from $26,608 in 1960. Thus suggesting an improvement in the standard of living for men and the families that are dependant on them, and the increasing ability for men to be able to purchase their own property and indulge in American consumerism of cars and other commodities. Furthermore, the career progressions of subjugated groups such as women, ethnic minorities and those who are impecunious also reflect the presence of the social mobility which provided independence and control for these groups. The ambitions of the women are an example of what the ‘dream’ entails, they want to rise up in the workplace, be equal to their male counterparts and acknowledged for their efforts. The roles Peggy Olson and Joan Holloway in the agency and their rise to ‘power’, reflect the Second Wave Feminism
Yet this opportunity only being accessible to white women and not women in general, generates the perception the ‘dream’ was an exclusive ideal closely associated with race.