Popsicles as love

Last night I watched the second to last episode of Mad Men for this season. I really like this show and wish more people watched it, but at least it has been renewed for a third season. The most interesting character to me is Peggy, who started in the first episode as a secretary at an advertising agency in 1960, and later got the chance to do some copywriting. She has remained self-effacing, and never seemed very attractive to me, but has had some ideas that clients really seemed to like, particularly this season, which fast forwarded to 1962. All season long people have been telling her that if she wants to get ahead she needs to look the part, yet she hasn't seemed to really catch on--it certainly seemed weird that three different characters have told her than and yet she still kept showing up at work in a pony tail and little girl clothes.

Two weeks ago a character--an out gay man who surprised everyone including Peggy with his announcement--gave her a much-needed haircut. That was a pretty cliche thing to have happen, and I'm not sure how I feel about the gay man acting as godmother, and her bangs still didn't look quite right. But last night she looked terrific, not only because of her hair, but she was wearing a cobalt blue cardigan with rhinestone buttons I would kill for (Cashmere cardigans are my weakness, and I know that was an especially nice one, presumably vintage, though new on the show). She came up with this idea for the Popsicle (TM) account--the clients wanted to sell popsicles in winter as well as summer--based on the idea that her mother broke Popsicles in half, and gave half to her, and half to her sister and that it was sort of like communion and it felt like love, with the tag line ""Take it. Break it. Share it. Love it." I'm not sure that would have worked for everyone, especially only children or families with an odd number of kinds. I don't remember a lot of Popsicles, but as an only child for my first 11 years (and I'm sure my sister wasn't eating them for another few years), if I ever had Popsicles, I guess I got the whole thing to myself and I imagine I liked it that way. I've never been a fan of fruit flavors, and love chocolate, so I'm sure there were more Fudgecicles, which are harder to break, but on the whole I think we are just an ice cream family. But maybe that's only because I never had a half a Popsicle bestowed on me like communion?

In the absence of boss Don Draper (who was off, literally finding himself in California), she really took control of the meeting, and asked for, and got, a much better office people senior to her had been coveting rather than having to share with another employee and the Xerox machine. It made me clap and it's clear that whatever the fate of the agency, Peggy has learned to really value her creativity and knows she has talent and power. It sows the seeds for second-wave feminism which is starting up along with the youth movement in 1962. We don't know if next season will pick right up or will skip a few years again, but it will be interesting to see how Peggy reacts to hippies and the Summer of Love.