SPOILER ALERT: Season 05, Episode 01: Setting: 1968. Political climate: Nixon, Humphrey, Wallace election. Henry’s in Nixon’s boat and brings Sterling, Draper, Price on to manage the ad campaign. Megan and Don have an infant son. Will this relationship fizzle after its 15 minutes of fame, only to see Don off to selling tomato soup cans for Nixon’s mug? Season 5 theme: loss of innocence. Vietnam, as the first televised war, brings a loss of innocence to a nation. Sally loses her virginity. Ultimately, Watergate and the demise of the presidency twists the knife in the collective wound. Side stories: Peggy and Ken find their way to each other? Joan’s a widowed mom, Roger doesn’t step up to the plate, though he’d love to taste the food. Advertising struggles with the new evolving individuality and counter-cultural ethos of the anti-establishment generation. A commercializing conundrum: how to market mass production to a culture that rejects conformity? More Madison Avenue ad campaign candy strewn throughout season 5 shows us shifts in the ad and media industries. Season opener song: America by Simon and Garfunkel.
Also featured: Lonely Little Girl by Frank Zappa; Mah nà mah nà by Piero Umiliani
Finale song: Elton John’s Tiny Dancer. It hurts already