Mad Men Note

I'm not going to return to doing Mad Men writeups, but I did want to add an observation about this week's episode. (It will be spoiler-free, insofar as saying that the agency pitched for new business does not constitute a spoiler.)

So far, a lot of this season has felt like treading water, waiting for something significant to happen. Last week was devoted to a crucial historical event and its aftermath, and I sensed the beginning of a shift. "For Immediate Release" felt like the show finally hit a groove that had been missing so far this year.

The business SCDP goes after in May 1968, an upcoming Chevrolet product code-named XP-887, was a real car in development at the time. Some of the discussion in Don's office might have led you to believe that Chevy was preparing a product to compete with the Mustang, but in fact they had already introduced such a product, the Camaro, in the fall of 1966 (two and a half years after the Mustang's debut).

The car in question was to be the Chevrolet Vega, a subcompact launched with the intention of offering an American-made alternative to Japanese imports like Toyota and Datsun, and other brands like Volkswagen, all of which were starting to gain acceptance in the US (especially in California and the Northeast). Honda was just getting started selling cars here, but they would become a formidable force in the 1970s.

The introductory ad campaign for the Vega, which went on sale as a 1971 model, was enormous, and the car initially won praise including Motor Trend's Car of the Year award, but the car was rushed into production and was compromised by cost-saving demands imposed by GM management. The biggest issues were with faulty rustproofing and engine problems; there were three recalls in 1972 alone, covering hundreds of thousands of vehicles. By the time GM had sorted out the car's problems, it was too late; the Vega was a lemon.

I have no idea what this could mean for the agency, as the show is supposed to end with next season and I don't think it will move that far into the future. But I thought it was interesting to look at this plot development with the benefit of hindsight. (I used Wikipedia as a source and there's much more on that page, which I've linked to above.)