{"id":1770,"date":"2009-09-20T09:29:18","date_gmt":"2009-09-20T14:29:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/?p=1770"},"modified":"2009-09-20T14:27:35","modified_gmt":"2009-09-20T19:27:35","slug":"mad-men-kulturkritik-race-capitalism-the-united-colours-of-pete-campbell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/2009\/09\/20\/mad-men-kulturkritik-race-capitalism-the-united-colours-of-pete-campbell\/","title":{"rendered":"Mad Men & Kulturkritik:: Race, Capitalism, & the United Colours of Pete Campbell"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"page3_blog_entry693_1\"<\/p>\n

In 1987, ABC launched an hour-long drama called thirtysomething<\/a><\/strong> that featured baby-boomers settling down, raising kids, being a part of the establishment, etc. \u00a0You know, from fighting “<\/em>the man” to becoming<\/em> “the man.” \u00a0Part of the storyline was two male friends, Michael and Elliot, working in advertising and sometimes having to deal with their values conflicting with capitalism. \u00a0In this episode, the guys, who had their own small agency that went under, are hired by a large agency with a boss {Miles Drentel} who has a penchant for not-so-subtle digs. \u00a0This is a long clip, the first 10 minutes of a 1989 episode, “New Job,” airdate:: 11 April. \u00a0The whole episode is on this YouTube channel<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n

Fast forward twenty years and AMC launches Mad Men<\/a> <\/strong>in 2007. \u00a0Unlike thirtysometing’s focus on current issues of values and ideals, Mad Men projects today’s issues in an older period. \u00a0 The result is a well-polished show that uses the Cold War 1960s that predates the Civil Rights movement, the rise of feminism, and the call for gay rights. \u00a0Viewers get to gaze into the workplace with Foucauldian precision, where the official art of capitalism is created like so much sausage in a meat packing plant, in a workplace full of sex, alcohol, and cigarettes, not to mention the occasional firearm.<\/p>\n

I take issues with some of the writing on the show, but that’s neither here nor there. \u00a0I will say there’s a certain cool detachment that the characters have, as they feed upon opportunism in the workplace, while creating cultural products {ads} that do the same. \u00a0On the show, Pete Campbell <\/a><\/strong>is a smarmy manor born WASP full of churlishness, ambition, and guile. \u00a0We aren’t supposed to like Pete, but it is Pete with his ambition fueling his desire to make a buck for his client who is willing to break the demographic colour barrier, as if he’s the Branch Rickey<\/a><\/strong> of advertising.<\/p>\n

Here’s Pete,\u00a0Paul Kinsey<\/a><\/strong> , and Harry Crane<\/a><\/strong> going over data and finding that urban blacks are buying Admiral TVs::<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n

In the elevator, he does a bit of “qualitative research” by asking Hollis about his brand preferences::<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n

Here’s Pete’s pitch to Admiral, complete with a framework for an “ethnic marketing” strategy::
\n<\/object><\/p>\n

The client is put off by this, reluctant to engage a strategy that would create black brand associations. \u00a0Pete is called on the carpet and Roger Sterling<\/a><\/strong> even goes as far to call him Martin Luther King {Jr.}. \u00a0This is a few episodes after Sterling donned blackface and sang “My Old Kentucky Home” at a Kentucky Derby party he was hosting::<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n

So, Pete being the \u00fcbercapitalist is lambasted for not understanding the realities of the economics of branding in the early 1960s. \u00a0The implication being “white flight” from the brand.<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n

It is Lane Pryce, a British expatriate in New York, who is the only one besides Pete to see value in “ethnic marketing” strategies. \u00a0Pete serves as a metaphor for blind capitalism that serves to take everyone’s money equally. \u00a0An idealized capitalism of individuals acting like atomistic agents in the market. \u00a0The interesting this is that Pete could have also been in the US music industry in the 1990s, seeing a way to market the unmarketable<\/em>, hard-edged rap and hip-hop by black artists to mainstream audiences.<\/p>\n

So, Pete the weasel turns out to be both the hero of capitalism and racial “equity.”<\/p>\n

Twitterversion:<\/strong>: \u00a0newblogpost:: Clips of #MadMen showing #PeteCampbell’s #ethnicmarketing pitch for a TV brand in 1963. #ThickCulture \u00a0http:\/\/url.ie\/2gwu\u00a0\u00a0@Prof_K<\/a><\/p>\n

Song:: <\/strong>Brown Sugar – The Rolling Stones<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n
\n
\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/form>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 1987, ABC launched an hour-long drama called thirtysomething that featured baby-boomers settling down, raising kids, being a part of the establishment, etc. \u00a0You know, from fighting “the man” to becoming “the man.” \u00a0Part of the storyline was two male friends, Michael and Elliot, working in advertising and sometimes having to deal with their values […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":160,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/160"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1770"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1770\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1774,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1770\/revisions\/1774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}