Duck is going through some rough times. Although he still remains pleasant around his colleagues, I still think there is something eating him up inside. When he released his dog into the streets of Madison Avenue, I felt gave the first sign that Duck is loosing touch with life... and... well... Duck is only a guest character, thus he must have some distinguishable exit.

so what's Duck's exit? (Please do not be vulgar)

From the sneak peak, looks like he'll be asked to leave as he didn't bring in business, in fact he lost the Agony Air account.

ha, ha, ha--the sneak peeks fooled us again. Darn they ALWAYS do that! You're not alone in your guess, Milwaukee.

I love that they tease us every week with pieces of a puzzle that ultimately won't fit where we think they should! 

So now we see Duck's off the wagon and those martinis went down pretty quick after his initial struggle to resist. To tempt him further, there's a near-full case of gin stockpiled in his office. He's orchestrating a major power play to become Don's superior: "creative reports to me or the deal's off" he tells Powell, the Brit. It seems to me the focus of his otherwise lonely life is to have power over Don.

I can see this deal falling through and a despondent and soused Duck flies out the window.

I should feel sympathy for this character but he's difficult to like.

I am the only fan of Duck.

He was the one who fought to get younger creative types on board.  Remember the coffee clients?

Duck was out hustling the client playing golf spending Saturday with them.  Then he had to battle old school Don to let Lenny and Sqwiggy do their no-sale SDS inspired campaign of hip music because young people don’t like to be told what to do.

So what happens, Don gets called in congratulated and told that he, not Duck should dust his tuxedo and be more out and about.

And Ducks dog was fine.  In less than 2 hours someone found him and took him home—unless he was hit by a car.  Hummm.

I agree with James here.  I have always felt Duck was under appreciated by the Sterling Cooper Bunch.  The younger guys resented him cause he was hired instead  of one of them getting promoted.  Remember ole sneaky Pete going into Don's office selling himself? Then trying blackmail??
He does all the scut work--sitting for hours watching birds remember that?  He did advocate for "Lenny and Sqwiggy" (Love that!!)to be hired.  I guess booze for Duck is like spinach is for Popeye! I'm with old Bert (YodaBert) Cooper when he said something like "yes this is the man I heard about" (I'm paraphrasing here). And  I have never seen or heard Duck say any thing even remotely sexist to the female staff.  Hey he gave Joanie that bottle of good booze didn't he? Me thinks this is going to be a very interesting season ending!!

very interesting indeed, Taylor and James. or can I say James Taylor who showed up on the pop music scene late 60s. this is so fun.

I'm happy to see Duck has fans. I said in my post he's difficult to like and I should feel sympathy for a lonely person battling substance abuse issues. But I can't like Duck when he threw Freddy under the bus. I mean, come on. They're both alchies 'cept Duck had it in control at the time and Freddy crossed the line and pissed on it. I think the bad Karma of trashing Freddy will come back to haunt Duck.

OMG I'm putting current values on 1960s characters. There was no concept of karma 1962 America, I'd guess. I also guess that back then a recovering alcoholic would have little or no sympathy for a guy as out of control as Freddy, playing Mozart on his zipper and pissing down his leg. 

What's Duck's real first name, btw? I did love roger's duck-crab, crab-duck introduction in Night to Remember.

Next episode Roger may have Don facing a mirror, saying: don-dick, dick-don. LOL. LOL.

I'm glad Duck has supporters. Now if you guys are any good at advertising it's your turn to convince me why I should like Duck.

I really think Duck will fly the Coop. so please tell me why you think he won't?

The advertising answer to why you should like Duck is that it doesn't matter whether you like him or not. He's got a catchy name and people are talking about him. That gives him high brand recognition. As long as he does nothing terribly aggregious, the general public will choose Duck brand over Pete brand 2:1.

good one adgal---

Duck is the closest character resembling America’s true and original advertizing Icon – Darrin Stevens.   He just has to wear a dicky shirt and yell “SAM.”

Without a family to be accountable to (complaining about him staggering in at 2AM drunk, crashing the car, hitting on other women etc,) he'll last much longer at SC being a drunk then at his last job.  So long as he leverages business there isn't a problem unless he pees his pants.  Even if he does there's a urine to cash ratio and it will be in his favor.

GO MIGHTY DUCK

Peggy - By the way I am in the advertizing biz

duck is an account guy with no one to be accountable to...recipe for disaster.
i think duck is going to be marinated in tangeray and roasted over an open flame...

um sounds yummy...down with duck!

James--
you have me curious to know more about your ad career. Do tell. I worked on Mad Ave back in 70s & 80s at Wells, Rich, Greene, the agency started by Mary Wells-Lawrence.

Curiousity about how a TV show would portray the ad biz had me tune into Mad Men. It is addictive, I got hooked on the first episode.

Peggy:

I produce political persuasion direct mail.  I usually work as a sub contractor to a general political consultant crafting the campaign’s or independent expenditure’s mail/print message.  I also do some government affairs work involving to development projects when it relates to direct mail.

One of my favorite parts of MM was when Peggy was getting a tour of SC and was told that the creative was a give-a-way and that all the money was made in media buys.  It works the same (even more so) for direct mail advertising.  I make my money in pulp and ink, how long the printing presses run and how much I mark up production. 

I was contacted by the Daily Show.  They were doing a segment on political direct mail and wanted to profile our company  by one of their” “reporters.”  I declined and they kept calling assuring me that I would look fine and it would be great exposure.  They eventually got one of my counterparts on the Dem side to do it.  At the start of the segment the reporter is waving around samples of my work wearing a hazmat gloves.  It’s a funny and semi accurate look at political advertizing.  It’s funny because it’s not me. 

http://www.thedailyshow.c ...

-it takes forever to load.

I enjoyed when MM got pulled into the Nixon campaign.  It’s been my experience that few political ad people make a successful transition into commercial advertizing and visa versa.  Basic rules and outlook conflict, it drives me nuts when a commercial ad person attempts to break in boasting that a campaign is a campaign and that a candidate is just another product that needs exposure.   

I would love to hear your thoughts or any of your personal experiences working in an Ad firm in the 70s that come close to what we’ve seen on MM.

That's funny, James, because I do B2B and B2C, but not political. Every once in a while, though, issues advertising comes across my desk from a B2B client and I do it to serve them because it's usually a one-time need, but would prefer not to.

Like you said, it's a world I don't know well and a tone of voice I generally don't engage. But I think of it like you said... that a campaign is a campaign and a product is a product. This may be an inappropriate discussion for this thread, but I'd like to hear how you see the differences. Maybe over in the advertising thread you responded to yesterday? You said you didn't want to talk business, so it's cool if you don't want to take the time to craft a response.

Adgal -

I would love to but we're doing 12 pieces today and my obsession with all things MM and bloging has to stop or my wife / partner will kill me.   Over the weekend or after Nov.