“... and I would eat it... alone, in my room... with great ceremony. “ My goodness. That line hits like a sucker punch in the stomach. What a performance.
@@richardsantanna5398 same here my father moved to another country and my mother couldn't stand me and loved my 4 siblings, bad times make great men!!
What a perfect scene. "The wrapper looks like what's inside." This is what makes Don break. We see Don being a great professional, wearing great clothes, with a great job, living up to the life he wants. But only he knows what it took to get there, and it's breaking him apart.
I respectfully disagree. I feel like the breaking point for Don was the executive exclaiming, "Well, weren't you a lucky little boy!" Because we all knew Don's backstory from the flashback scenes, and we all knew he was everything but lucky as a little boy.
Not only he did tell the people who literally made his childhood exactly what it meant to him. He told them his line of work was pointless because people already know the value of products they consume. It's made by the consumer not the advertiser. He broke the illusion.
Not 100% true. It's somewhat of a balance between the two. In some cases, the advertising carries more weight than the product (Apple products being a good example of a terrible product carried almost entirely by marketing).
@@SergeantExtreme Dang Dude. The sudden chill in your air just cracked your Android Galaxy *Zfold* Phone screen straight down the middle. To me, *Apple* *_is_* like a Hershey Bar. Simple and easy (to eat). *Good* *Advertising* has raised its value to the level of a *Bentley* forever.
hands down my favorite scene of this show. better than the carousel. this was a living, human lie being destroyed by the constant maintenance it requires, and having pure truth laid bare. i tear up every time i watch this.
This is one of the rare moments Don bares a true part of himself to anybody, and he does it in a room full of his peers and 2 random executives. Why does he do it? This story seems like the genesis of Don Draper himself, the womanizer who needs to feel wanted, because as a child, he never was.
@@Onigirli Don looked at Ted and saw how he needed to get to California otherwise his feelings for Peggy would break up his family and have his kids come from a broken home like Don's kids and Don himself. That's the reason Don gives up his chance to fix his relationship with Megan and self-destructive tendencies since he didn't want another family to have to go through what he and his family went through. Underneath, Don really admired Ted and tried to bring him to his level all season making this sacrifice even more powerful.
Also, I think Don was pretty spot-on: Hershey was the only good thing in his life. His confession was similar to how a fan tells a musicians they see in person how their music saved them. Yeah an overshare for everybody, but cathartic for the sharer.
Don ruined his own career and had been ditching meetings, leaving early, getting super drunks, and not showing up to stuff for a while. He hasn’t been the same ad exec since season 4-5, this was a long time coming. The Hershey’s pitch was the nail in the coffin
Two years now since I saw this scene and still I find it breathtaking. A shocking moment and very rare where Don pretty much encapsulates his own life. And all because a Hershey bar and the look of a sad and devastated Ted Chaugh. Boy! How I miss this show!
This is the most important scene of the series. Hershey meant more to him than anything. Thats why he went into advertising. Because brands can mean something to people. They can be family or friends or spirituality. Sad but true. True for him. He lived an authentic life. It was just alone.. where his meaning came from products and marketing. The whole show teeters on the edge of meaning. To him it meant something. The end.
Don also served in the military, where Hersey were in fact part of the rations. The taste wasn't the same in those rations as they were meant to last longer and provide more substance to soldiers. I see it as him losing what little innocence was left of him with the war.
You lost me when you claimed the most inauthentic character in television history, with a celebrated masterpiece of a show built around his inauthenticity, "lived an authentic life".
@@emass2424 You missed the point of what he was saying, that Don Draper lived that authentic life while alone. When nobody was around to observe. Just him and his stuff.
One of the most powerful scenes I’ve ever seen. Hamm properly communicates childhood pain and escapism perfectly. Moving work, truly. “I would eat it alone, in my room, with great ceremony feeling like a normal kid, and it said sweet on the package.”
CrampedStyle- no, what I meant is that that line might have pushed Don over the edge. He tells the story of the childhood that he never had, and the client comments how lucky he was. When nothing could be further from the truth. You could hear a pin drop when he told his real childhood story. It was so awkward and raw. It could have been overacted. But Jon Hamm’s performance is subtle and brilliant. And the reactions are well acted as well. Just a great scent all around.
The other reactions around the table really sell it as well. Everyone looks disgusted and shocked and Roger just kind of takes it in stride, like there was a part of him that always expected something like this to happen.
I like looking at this scene from the others' perspective. We, the audience, know what Don has been through and how he's been falling apart leading to this moment. At this point, Ted, Roger, and Cutler have been disillusioned with Don as a person, but they still only know him as a talented colleague. He keeps everyone at arm's length emotionally, they don't really know him. The Hershey's guys are obviously complete strangers, maybe they've heard of Don's professional reputation and are hoping to be impressed. He tells this incredibly sad, disturbing, deeply personal story out of nowhere, nearly in tears. For Roger, Ted, and Cutler, this is probably the first truly intimate thing they know about Don.
It was a surprise to us too. We knew about Don's horrible childhood but the specifics of his Hershey connection were revealed to us only in this scene.
I heard Matthew Weiner say that, after years of writing Don Draper, he realized that a key component which underpins his character is a love of impressing strangers. His presentations are so incredible because each one is an opportunity to astound and hypnotize people who don’t know him - his ultimate motivator. In telling them something so personal, the Hershey executives cease to be strangers. The spellbinding effect he has over his audience disappears. He commits the cardinal sin of a showman - being authentic at the expense of the role. Of course, it’s all part of a larger battle being fought by his subconscious, which is to kill the false persona he’s developed as a coping mechanism and that is irreconcilable with his inner self.
Ted is the reason Don spilled his guts in this scene: A little context. Ted is in massive conflict due to his personal situation with Peggy, he loves her but does not have his wife. So he is faced with choosing his true feelings or to stay with the family. After much deliberation he decided to stay with his family for his kids sake, and confesses to Don that he wants to go to California in his place (a new firm opened up in California and don was about to leave New York). Don says no. After giving the presentation he then glances at Ted. Ted is staring off into the distance, thinking about what to do now that he can’t go to California. Don can see how much his kids mean to him, more than work, more than the present moment. Don knows he loves them, the way that he wishes that he was loved growing up. Upon realising this truth his hands starts shaking, and he sees things for what they are and it makes him sick. He tells the truth. Then he sends Ted to California.
Meh Ted is a part of it. But, Don was a wreck this season, and the Hershey bar likely caused the memories and flashback and also coincided with him realizing how full of shit he is. It's a multitude of things leading to this breaking point, not just Ted.
Hersey was a symbol of what everybody expected inside. Don was just honest about his experience. As the Hersey bar ad was what he wanted in life. A normal Life!
Don looks over at Ted after he finishes his pitch, and Ted seems to be lost in sad thought, maybe wishing he had enjoyed an experience like that with his dad. I believe that Don sees how his pitch affected Ted and realizes he's done so much to hurt the poor guy that this was once too many and thats why he chooses this moment to come clean.
It was Don's emotional crash moment here. In a later episode, it's mentioned that a competing agency signed the Hershey Company, which meant that this breakdown cost them the entire account.
@@gleedameister I actually think if he abouts face and responds "yes" after the "do you want us to advertise that" they still have a shot. But then he ties a bow on the dialogue with "if I had it my way you would never advertise..." and then the account is lost. My two cents
@@StevenBohnel the ironic thing is Hershey's in real life was forbidden by Milton Hershey's Deed from advertising that they cared for orphans. Another irony is that Executive saying do you want us to advertise that would have likely been William Dearden in the 60’s . He was a Graduate of Milton Hershey's School.
In many other countries, if someone spoke like this it would be a home run at a meeting. Nothing beats sincerity. The greats that wrote this should be given many an award 🎉
Listen, I’m a bigger champion for Don Draper the character than anyone, but we have to admit this was extremely, deeply unprofessional and not the time or place. Don dealing with undealt with emotions and life moments during a client pitch is the furthest from appropriate as you can get. It’s not about him, his greatness, or his weakness, it’s about Hershey and he made it about himself. That simple. The Agency was right to relieve him at that moment.
@@zachariah7114 It depends which ‘world’ we all live in, there are dozens of different ones if not hundreds, they dont all operate the same way. In the 50’s I agree, but now, people can talk more and be accepted. I am finding more and more that bosses really dislike fake happy and now look to negotiate with real people. They have been there.
My Grandpa was that generation; born in 1924. WW2 Fighter Pilot in the Pacific (Mustangs). He was at Leyte Gulf and served through the occupation. He was gone 2.5 years from '43-'45. He died in 2010 at 86. It took him until the last year or two of his life before he told me some of the really gnarly stuff he endured. Those guys in that generation all had traumatic childhoods and then traumatic experiences in WW2 and Korea, but to talk about it in a vulnerable way made you look weak. Roger was the only friend who stayed true to Don.
I had an uncle that died around 1975. I don't know what he saw in WWII, but it must have been pretty bad. All I knew of him is that he was such a bad alcoholic that he would wander around his place in an alcohol-fueled daze. I eventually realized that it took 30 years for the war to kill him.
When you're the best at your job, you're also the best at ruining your own job. Also the way they were fawning over his fake story filled him with so much loathing he had to go tell the truth, ruining the point of the original story and ruining the point of advertising.
The looks of shear horror that creep over the faces of the men in the room as Don continues to talk...almost like watching a 30 point lead evaporate in the 4th quarter of a game.
I like to think that they were afraid because they were in the presence of a human being, in that moment Don was no longer a part of the pack, he was no longer someone you can get drunk with without a care in the world because you're convinced that he's as empty as you are, at that moment they discovered that Don is actually alive, because he did what none of them could ever do, show emotions, not because they're afraid, but because they genuinely can't, it looks like Don just betrayed them.
When Don is authentic he is alone, or he finds himself alone. To be close to anyone else, or to save any life he makes for himself, he has to lie. He starts losing his advertising life the minute he is honest. He doesn't truly get that back until the series finale. He didn't meditate in California to find peace. He did it to get the idea for Coke.
This scene made me absolutely hate the corporate world of the 60s/70s. It was already portrayed in a difficult light in the show, but man. This story was beautiful, he was telling it to let them know how much their work means to him and people all over the world. But they just sit in utter horror and confusion. I know it’s a business meeting where you should be professional, and obviously you can’t run an ad with that. But don already gave them a great ad. Now he just wanted to let them know how their product helped him through hell.
The thing that made me hate the corporate world was the "He'll never golf again" in the earlier seasons when the guy lost his leg. Like imagine losing your leg in a work related accident - a disability that doesnt even directly affect your job - but it cripples your career because you can't fulfill the social expectation of playing golf. At least in my country, these days the company would be on the hook for SO MUCH money if this accident happened AND disability lawyers would be watching the guy's career like a hawk to ensure there's no discrimination happening.
Have to admit, this is one of those WTF moments. He had them eating out of his hand, then he went all honest and emotional on them. People don't like that, although we say we do.
I think you have a point. It seems as if the first time i was completely honest with people about my true feelings i was considered to be over emotional. I really don't think people can handle the truth.
@@l.t.9659 they want an easily digestible facsimile. The appearance of authenticity. People are too burned out at best or too willfully stupid to actually engage their brains beyond a certain point even though empathy doesnt actually require any thought. Just engagement and .... No one really engages beyond themselves. It's how millions of people die of loneliness and despair. There are people that can. But I think they're so overworked that even they're getting burned out past a certain point so if you meet one of those people you have to be careful and be careful about the pressure you're putting on them.
“...and it said ‘sweet’ on the package... it was the only sweet thing in my life.” By this point the knife has already been stabbed into the chest and that line just sinks it straight into the heart 😢
I don't know why, but this is one of the hardest scenes watch for me. I rewatch this show a loth I often myself avoid thes scene. Maybe it hits a little to close to home.
I watched this show when I was very young and hadn't lived a life of loss or regret. I was 21 when this season came out and always thought life will only get better and the good times were always ahead not understanding that the life I was living back then were the good times...passing me by and hence couldn't really appreciate this show, and yet for some reason I always remembered this scene, and every time I bought a Hershey bar I was reminded of this scene and the good times that have come and gone. I lost my father to cancer this august and my mom is extremely ill, being the only son at 32 years of age and unmarried trying to still make it in the world, this scene just hits alot harder than I remembered
Hang in there Ahmar; as much as you've seen, there's still so much more; don't fail to appreciate the future good ol' days happening now by focusing too much on having not fully appreciated future good ol' days as they were happening then.
This scene is just so crazy. Beautifully written, and Jon Hamm absolutely killed it but if I were one of those execs, I'd be like "What the fuck......."
As much as I love the character of Don, and I do maybe a little too much, this was also extremely unprofessional I mean quite pointedly. Yes, Don “told the truth” but there’s a saying - time and place. Had this happened not during a pitch but over a client dinner, perhaps it could have gone differently. Still doubtful. It was the needed kick to Don’s keister to get him back in high gear, and send him on the journey to the eventual best work of his career.
Two days before my father died we found out my millionaire executive military father was actually adopted. He was the product of rape of the worst kind. Not even my mother knew. When I saw this scene I wept. Every thing he said and did finally made sense…
It’s always with strangers he tells the truth. His childhood and young adult tragic story. Certainly ironic as he is usually unshakable and invincible for most of the series when it comes to his turf.. the office. But this time it happens at work. Exception that proves the rule perhaps. But then again most great artists, writers of note have some absorbing darkness. Trauma. Depression. Don’s no different.
So sad... I feel like what happened next was a complete betrayal. Although... he had been lazy, but i feel like the way the partners went about it was uncool
No it wasn't because of anxiety repressed stress. Don went cold turkey with alcohol. When someone like Don, who is an alcoholic (though functioning), stops drinking, it can lead to adverse side effects. Like shaking, mood swings, judgement lapses, etc. Alcohol was keeping Don's emotions in check. Or rather keeping his emotional trauma away from the surface.
That was a characteristically Peggy type story. Loving, filled with nostalgia. Don tried to use this technique like Peggy does but it was very unlike him so he chose to tell the truth.
If Don had made this confession early in the series, they probably would've let him off the hook. Back then he had nothing to lose. Now he's behaving erratically and the agency is in serious turmoil to the degree that they have no choice but to suspend him. I guess it goes to show how dramatically the circumstances have changed.
Brilliant Hamm. Here. Brilliant. To have tears and too much emotion wouldn't have been Draper. True to self. Both the fake one and the real one. At the same time. Amazing
At the Hershey School on the hill across the street from the factory, there is a bronze statue of Milton Hershey with an orphan boy wrapped in his arms. Below the statue are these words: "His deeds are his monument. His life is our inspiration." It might have been more interesting if Don’s intentional sabotage by his brutal honest story backfired, and the execs wind up embracing him and his agency because of it-such a talented bastard that he can’t even escape when he wants to.
Ted was in a situation that he had asked Don for help with, and Don was planning to ignore Ted because Don was focused on helping himself. I think Ted’s honest desperation during the pitch reminded Don of his younger self.
I like how don Draper thinks he’s needs a drink bc not bc he’s a alcoholic but bc he’s can’t be sober and not tell the truth. He must be drunk to main the illusion and instead of reaching for a drink he instead tells the truth and he stops shaking.
This was portrayed as Don stepping in it, making a business blunder. But his real story honestly sold me on Hershey bars more than the cliche one. If I were those executives I would have wanted to hire SCDP even more after hearing that.
This scene makes me want to chuckle and also cry at the same time. The dissonance between what he proposed and what he actually doles out is very blunt. The description of his orphanage life actually brought me to tears.
Lol don't get me wrong, I get a lot from this scene, but I don't understand how showing a bunch of seniors this video will have any impact on them. Alright, kids, before you go, let's sit down and watch this 4 minute Mad Men clip. Alright, have a good life! Lol
I think of this scene all the time because I am constantly misrepresenting my own background to appear more like the upper middle class person I have become. I don’t lie. I just say I came from a big family and a religious family and that brings about a certain image which is frankly bullshit. I hate that honesty is unprofessional from me but fine from others.
Ironic that if the pitch ended at around 1:12, this would’ve been “in the bag” and an easy win for the Agency. But of course, this thing had to play out and unwind. And I’m so very glad that it did.
"The wrapper looked like what was inside."
How Don always wished he could be.
Whoa!
why would he want to be a chocolate bar?
LOL. he wants to be the same on the inside, as he is on the outside.
lol just being a silly goose. It was an excellent observation
Ouch.
"...Hershey's! The cure for the common orphan!"
Lmao!!
Amazing!
Gimme a second
Oh Danny?
That dog will hunt!!
“... and I would eat it... alone, in my room... with great ceremony. “
My goodness. That line hits like a sucker punch in the stomach.
What a performance.
I loved that. "With great ceremony..."
Feeling like a normal kid... :'/
It hit me hard too. Because I was that kid.
'Feeling like a normal kid'
@@richardsantanna5398 same here my father moved to another country and my mother couldn't stand me and loved my 4 siblings, bad times make great men!!
Great writing from Matthew Weiner and Carly Wray. Not sure which one wrote that monologue but it's perfection.
It's interesting that the moment he starts being honest people stop respecting him. Like how if advertising were honest no one would listen to it.
This is actually a realest comment i heard in a while on this box
don is literally an ad woah
His second pitch was actually better tbh.
and he was honest because the advertising actually meant something real to him
Great insight. Tnx.
when someone asks me how im doing today:
"i was an orphan... "
😂😂
What a perfect scene. "The wrapper looks like what's inside." This is what makes Don break. We see Don being a great professional, wearing great clothes, with a great job, living up to the life he wants. But only he knows what it took to get there, and it's breaking him apart.
Dang, I had not thought of that angle. Thank you.
Dang.
I respectfully disagree. I feel like the breaking point for Don was the executive exclaiming, "Well, weren't you a lucky little boy!" Because we all knew Don's backstory from the flashback scenes, and we all knew he was everything but lucky as a little boy.
I think you are both right
"Jesus Christ, Don, we're just trying to sell some chocolate in here."
I can't remember if that's a line but it should be.
Hahahaha that made me laugh out loud.
That one guy openly wondering whether Don was still doing a bit, fucking lol
That'd be if Pete was in the room lol
@@stephenallen4625 nah Pete would be like shit shit I better write this down emotional breakdown okay okay what else dick whiteman
Not only he did tell the people who literally made his childhood exactly what it meant to him.
He told them his line of work was pointless because people already know the value of products they consume.
It's made by the consumer not the advertiser.
He broke the illusion.
It was powerful
Without the advertiser consumers don't know about the product which creates the relationship, and the value.
@@sbonamo
Exactly.
Not 100% true. It's somewhat of a balance between the two. In some cases, the advertising carries more weight than the product (Apple products being a good example of a terrible product carried almost entirely by marketing).
@@SergeantExtreme Dang Dude. The sudden chill in your air just cracked your Android Galaxy *Zfold* Phone screen straight down the middle. To me, *Apple* *_is_* like a Hershey Bar. Simple and easy (to eat). *Good* *Advertising* has raised its value to the level of a *Bentley* forever.
For those that grew up in an environment that told you daily that you are of no value totally gets his message...I cried after.
I hope you are doing well in life, may you have an amazing 2018.
Fuck 👍
To real i cried as well, Same way i grew up and i am almost 30
I broke down the first time I saw this episode. I hope all of you are doing well, stay strong.
I fell sorry because I can relate. But at the same time it does not excuse that he destroys everything he touches
hands down my favorite scene of this show. better than the carousel. this was a living, human lie being destroyed by the constant maintenance it requires, and having pure truth laid bare. i tear up every time i watch this.
You described it perfectly man. I love rewatching this too
Hits home 100%
This is one of the rare moments Don bares a true part of himself to anybody, and he does it in a room full of his peers and 2 random executives. Why does he do it? This story seems like the genesis of Don Draper himself, the womanizer who needs to feel wanted, because as a child, he never was.
Daelion164 👏👏👏
He looked at Ted's sad expression and his hand started visibly shaking, I wonder if he meant it somewhat as a self-punitive action
@@Onigirli Don looked at Ted and saw how he needed to get to California otherwise his feelings for Peggy would break up his family and have his kids come from a broken home like Don's kids and Don himself. That's the reason Don gives up his chance to fix his relationship with Megan and self-destructive tendencies since he didn't want another family to have to go through what he and his family went through. Underneath, Don really admired Ted and tried to bring him to his level all season making this sacrifice even more powerful.
Also, I think Don was pretty spot-on: Hershey was the only good thing in his life. His confession was similar to how a fan tells a musicians they see in person how their music saved them. Yeah an overshare for everybody, but cathartic for the sharer.
Not only that, he gets punished for it.
How To Handle: An Emotional Breakdown
Idk, this outburst basically got him fired and everyone made him out to be unstable. It almost ruined his career.
@@TeppiaxD that was my joke, I was being ironic.
@@TeppiaxD Almost? It did ruin his career.
Don ruined his own career and had been ditching meetings, leaving early, getting super drunks, and not showing up to stuff for a while. He hasn’t been the same ad exec since season 4-5, this was a long time coming. The Hershey’s pitch was the nail in the coffin
The lesson “know when to stop talking”
Two years now since I saw this scene and still I find it breathtaking. A shocking moment and very rare where Don pretty much encapsulates his own life. And all because a Hershey bar and the look of a sad and devastated Ted Chaugh. Boy! How I miss this show!
This is the most important scene of the series. Hershey meant more to him than anything. Thats why he went into advertising. Because brands can mean something to people. They can be family or friends or spirituality. Sad but true. True for him. He lived an authentic life. It was just alone.. where his meaning came from products and marketing. The whole show teeters on the edge of meaning. To him it meant something. The end.
Don also served in the military, where Hersey were in fact part of the rations. The taste wasn't the same in those rations as they were meant to last longer and provide more substance to soldiers. I see it as him losing what little innocence was left of him with the war.
Also made him better at creating the illusion of happiness and satisfactory so necessary in advertising.
You lost me when you claimed the most inauthentic character in television history, with a celebrated masterpiece of a show built around his inauthenticity, "lived an authentic life".
Amd remember the moment Pete asked him about a chocolate, first thing he said was "hirshey"
@@emass2424 You missed the point of what he was saying, that Don Draper lived that authentic life while alone. When nobody was around to observe. Just him and his stuff.
Isn’t it wonderful how people still watch these clips even though the shows been over 6 years
i just started watching this show and came here for the comments
One of the most powerful scenes I’ve ever seen. Hamm properly communicates childhood pain and escapism perfectly. Moving work, truly. “I would eat it alone, in my room, with great ceremony feeling like a normal kid, and it said sweet on the package.”
When he say *the only sweet think in my life * my heart broke
“Well weren’t you a lucky little boy!” .... wow. This is writing and acting at its best.
Is that sarcasm?
CrampedStyle- no, what I meant is that that line might have pushed Don over the edge. He tells the story of the childhood that he never had, and the client comments how lucky he was. When nothing could be further from the truth. You could hear a pin drop when he told his real childhood story. It was so awkward and raw. It could have been overacted. But Jon Hamm’s performance is subtle and brilliant. And the reactions are well acted as well. Just a great scent all around.
Ah, got it, and I totally agree.
The other reactions around the table really sell it as well. Everyone looks disgusted and shocked and Roger just kind of takes it in stride, like there was a part of him that always expected something like this to happen.
@@timf7413 Rodger is probably Don's only real friend. I think he always knew something was wrong with Don.
I like looking at this scene from the others' perspective. We, the audience, know what Don has been through and how he's been falling apart leading to this moment. At this point, Ted, Roger, and Cutler have been disillusioned with Don as a person, but they still only know him as a talented colleague. He keeps everyone at arm's length emotionally, they don't really know him. The Hershey's guys are obviously complete strangers, maybe they've heard of Don's professional reputation and are hoping to be impressed. He tells this incredibly sad, disturbing, deeply personal story out of nowhere, nearly in tears. For Roger, Ted, and Cutler, this is probably the first truly intimate thing they know about Don.
It was a surprise to us too. We knew about Don's horrible childhood but the specifics of his Hershey connection were revealed to us only in this scene.
I heard Matthew Weiner say that, after years of writing Don Draper, he realized that a key component which underpins his character is a love of impressing strangers. His presentations are so incredible because each one is an opportunity to astound and hypnotize people who don’t know him - his ultimate motivator.
In telling them something so personal, the Hershey executives cease to be strangers. The spellbinding effect he has over his audience disappears. He commits the cardinal sin of a showman - being authentic at the expense of the role.
Of course, it’s all part of a larger battle being fought by his subconscious, which is to kill the false persona he’s developed as a coping mechanism and that is irreconcilable with his inner self.
“Hersheys..the cure for the common brothel”
Ted is the reason Don spilled his guts in this scene:
A little context. Ted is in massive conflict due to his personal situation with Peggy, he loves her but does not have his wife. So he is faced with choosing his true feelings or to stay with the family.
After much deliberation he decided to stay with his family for his kids sake, and confesses to Don that he wants to go to California in his place (a new firm opened up in California and don was about to leave New York). Don says no. After giving the presentation he then glances at Ted. Ted is staring off into the distance, thinking about what to do now that he can’t go to California. Don can see how much his kids mean to him, more than work, more than the present moment. Don knows he loves them, the way that he wishes that he was loved growing up. Upon realising this truth his hands starts shaking, and he sees things for what they are and it makes him sick. He tells the truth. Then he sends Ted to California.
*love his
Thanks
the tremor is likely from mild alcohol withdrawal symptoms
Meh Ted is a part of it. But, Don was a wreck this season, and the Hershey bar likely caused the memories and flashback and also coincided with him realizing how full of shit he is. It's a multitude of things leading to this breaking point, not just Ted.
@@phamawaAgreed. Don’s entire life was a lie, but he couldn’t lie about this.
This broke my heart. Superb acting.
Incredible how it took Breaking Bad to finish for Jon to get his Emmy
@@bryansteele3760 yeah right! They are my two favorite shows :-D
This is the scene that encapsulates the entire show.
Hersey was a symbol of what everybody expected inside. Don was just honest about his experience. As the Hersey bar ad was what he wanted in life. A normal Life!
Don looks over at Ted after he finishes his pitch, and Ted seems to be lost in sad thought, maybe wishing he had enjoyed an experience like that with his dad.
I believe that Don sees how his pitch affected Ted and realizes he's done so much to hurt the poor guy that this was once too many and thats why he chooses this moment to come clean.
It was Don's emotional crash moment here. In a later episode, it's mentioned that a competing agency signed the Hershey Company, which meant that this breakdown cost them the entire account.
Well yeah did you really think they were gonna stick around after that? lol
@@gleedameister I actually think if he abouts face and responds "yes" after the "do you want us to advertise that" they still have a shot. But then he ties a bow on the dialogue with "if I had it my way you would never advertise..." and then the account is lost. My two cents
@@StevenBohnel he had them till he said he didn't
@@StevenBohnel the ironic thing is Hershey's in real life was forbidden by Milton Hershey's Deed from advertising that they cared for orphans. Another irony is that Executive saying do you want us to advertise that would have likely been William Dearden in the 60’s . He was a Graduate of Milton Hershey's School.
“Hershey’s: The Currency of Hooker’s Everywhere”
Brilliant
Hershey's Eat Ass by the Bowlful
@@ardenaudreyarji there’s chocolate in there too
Don: "I was an orphan."
(Everyone disliked that.)
Ouch, broke my heart. Seriously some of the most incredible writing and acting to date.
In many other countries, if someone spoke like this it would be a home run at a meeting. Nothing beats sincerity. The greats that wrote this should be given many an award 🎉
agreed. he touched something deep inside a human soul. but probably should've tone it down a bit to the public but keep the core of it.
Listen, I’m a bigger champion for Don Draper the character than anyone, but we have to admit this was extremely, deeply unprofessional and not the time or place. Don dealing with undealt with emotions and life moments during a client pitch is the furthest from appropriate as you can get. It’s not about him, his greatness, or his weakness, it’s about Hershey and he made it about himself. That simple. The Agency was right to relieve him at that moment.
@@zachariah7114 Actually many might see it instead as… it was about how Hersheys made even the worst moment in his life, a good one.
@@morganwhite2176 perhaps but in all actuality, that's not how the real world works
@@zachariah7114 It depends which ‘world’ we all live in, there are dozens of different ones if not hundreds, they dont all operate the same way. In the 50’s I agree, but now, people can talk more and be accepted. I am finding more and more that bosses really dislike fake happy and now look to negotiate with real people. They have been there.
My Grandpa was that generation; born in 1924. WW2 Fighter Pilot in the Pacific (Mustangs). He was at Leyte Gulf and served through the occupation. He was gone 2.5 years from '43-'45. He died in 2010 at 86. It took him until the last year or two of his life before he told me some of the really gnarly stuff he endured.
Those guys in that generation all had traumatic childhoods and then traumatic experiences in WW2 and Korea, but to talk about it in a vulnerable way made you look weak.
Roger was the only friend who stayed true to Don.
I had an uncle that died around 1975. I don't know what he saw in WWII, but it must have been pretty bad. All I knew of him is that he was such a bad alcoholic that he would wander around his place in an alcohol-fueled daze. I eventually realized that it took 30 years for the war to kill him.
When you're the best at your job, you're also the best at ruining your own job.
Also the way they were fawning over his fake story filled him with so much loathing he had to go tell the truth, ruining the point of the original story and ruining the point of advertising.
The looks of shear horror that creep over the faces of the men in the room as Don continues to talk...almost like watching a 30 point lead evaporate in the 4th quarter of a game.
I like to think that they were afraid because they were in the presence of a human being, in that moment Don was no longer a part of the pack, he was no longer someone you can get drunk with without a care in the world because you're convinced that he's as empty as you are, at that moment they discovered that Don is actually alive, because he did what none of them could ever do, show emotions, not because they're afraid, but because they genuinely can't, it looks like Don just betrayed them.
Probably top 5 in Mad Men scenes,.....powerful honesty. ...
You don't have to tell a boy what a Hershey bar is. He already knows. Her She s.
When Don is authentic he is alone, or he finds himself alone. To be close to anyone else, or to save any life he makes for himself, he has to lie.
He starts losing his advertising life the minute he is honest. He doesn't truly get that back until the series finale. He didn't meditate in California to find peace. He did it to get the idea for Coke.
This scene made me absolutely hate the corporate world of the 60s/70s. It was already portrayed in a difficult light in the show, but man. This story was beautiful, he was telling it to let them know how much their work means to him and people all over the world. But they just sit in utter horror and confusion. I know it’s a business meeting where you should be professional, and obviously you can’t run an ad with that. But don already gave them a great ad. Now he just wanted to let them know how their product helped him through hell.
It's because that story is horrifying
Do you think the corporate world changed for the better lol
The thing that made me hate the corporate world was the "He'll never golf again" in the earlier seasons when the guy lost his leg. Like imagine losing your leg in a work related accident - a disability that doesnt even directly affect your job - but it cripples your career because you can't fulfill the social expectation of playing golf. At least in my country, these days the company would be on the hook for SO MUCH money if this accident happened AND disability lawyers would be watching the guy's career like a hawk to ensure there's no discrimination happening.
He literally told them "if i had my way you wouldn't advertise at all" lol why would you want that person running your ad copy
"Hershey's: It's Stabbing Me in the Fucking Heart!" - Ginsberg
Have to admit, this is one of those WTF moments. He had them eating out of his hand, then he went all honest and emotional on them. People don't like that, although we say we do.
Not even Don draper can sell the truth
I think you have a point. It seems as if the first time i was completely honest with people about my true feelings i was considered to be over emotional. I really don't think people can handle the truth.
@@l.t.9659 especially in advertising
@@l.t.9659 they want an easily digestible facsimile.
The appearance of authenticity.
People are too burned out at best or too willfully stupid to actually engage their brains beyond a certain point even though empathy doesnt actually require any thought.
Just engagement and ....
No one really engages beyond themselves.
It's how millions of people die of loneliness and despair.
There are people that can.
But I think they're so overworked that even they're getting burned out past a certain point so if you meet one of those people you have to be careful and be careful about the pressure you're putting on them.
@@DeadpoolX9 You are right. Yeah. I agree.
“...and it said ‘sweet’ on the package... it was the only sweet thing in my life.”
By this point the knife has already been stabbed into the chest and that line just sinks it straight into the heart 😢
Legitimately one of the best scenes in the entire series.
I don't know why, but this is one of the hardest scenes watch for me. I rewatch this show a loth I often myself avoid thes scene. Maybe it hits a little to close to home.
So well written and performed.
This is definitely one of the strongest scenes in the whole series...
If I had my way you would never advertise - you shouldn't have someone like me telling that boy what a Hershey bar is. He already knows.
So good
I watched this show when I was very young and hadn't lived a life of loss or regret. I was 21 when this season came out and always thought life will only get better and the good times were always ahead not understanding that the life I was living back then were the good times...passing me by and hence couldn't really appreciate this show, and yet for some reason I always remembered this scene, and every time I bought a Hershey bar I was reminded of this scene and the good times that have come and gone. I lost my father to cancer this august and my mom is extremely ill, being the only son at 32 years of age and unmarried trying to still make it in the world, this scene just hits alot harder than I remembered
Hang in there Ahmar; as much as you've seen, there's still so much more; don't fail to appreciate the future good ol' days happening now by focusing too much on having not fully appreciated future good ol' days as they were happening then.
Crazy thing is, if his honest story was a commercial with him doing the monologue in the background, it'd be like the greatest commercial of all time
This scene is just so crazy. Beautifully written, and Jon Hamm absolutely killed it but if I were one of those execs, I'd be like "What the fuck......."
As much as I love the character of Don, and I do maybe a little too much, this was also extremely unprofessional I mean quite pointedly. Yes, Don “told the truth” but there’s a saying - time and place. Had this happened not during a pitch but over a client dinner, perhaps it could have gone differently. Still doubtful. It was the needed kick to Don’s keister to get him back in high gear, and send him on the journey to the eventual best work of his career.
Easily one of the best moments in TV history...
westside auto this was terrible.
He just couldn't tell any more lies. Even though he knew it would ruin his life.
3:20 great acting by Ted Chaugh-gah-gah
Amazing actor, and the other actors even though they said nothing for most of it reacted perfectly
One of the best Don Draper scenes!!!
That John Hamm performance was outstanding.
Duck Phillips is the only one who didn't like this video..
"He could never hold his liquor."
He took a dump on the video.
"Do you want to advertise that?" was a nice bit of humor in this moving scene.
Two days before my father died we found out my millionaire executive military father was actually adopted. He was the product of rape of the worst kind. Not even my mother knew. When I saw this scene I wept. Every thing he said and did finally made sense…
It’s always with strangers he tells the truth. His childhood and young adult tragic story. Certainly ironic as he is usually unshakable and invincible for most of the series when it comes to his turf.. the office. But this time it happens at work. Exception that proves the rule perhaps. But then again most great artists, writers of note have some absorbing darkness. Trauma. Depression. Don’s no different.
Jim Cutler after this pitch: “My estimation of Don Draper as a man just fucking plummeted”
charles schwab over here
1:48. Roger and Ted know something bad gunna happen
Whoever developed Hershey Kisses was brilliant. It fit in with this whole strategy.
To the tune of black parade
"When I was a young boy my father took me to the drug store to buy a Hersheys bar"
Brilliant acting and writing.
"It was the only sweet thing in my life." Dam I know the feeling.
This scene is so heavy, Don's honest disclosure and the men in the rooms inability to bear it.
When going to diner I ask if I can say grace, then I give this monologue.
So sad... I feel like what happened next was a complete betrayal. Although... he had been lazy, but i feel like the way the partners went about it was uncool
Seriously, it was almost funny how villainous they came across, all posed together. Bert especially. "THE VERDICT HAS BEEN REACHED"
Dons hands shook like Bettys did in the first season, because trey were both repressing their feelings
No it wasn't because of anxiety repressed stress. Don went cold turkey with alcohol. When someone like Don, who is an alcoholic (though functioning), stops drinking, it can lead to adverse side effects. Like shaking, mood swings, judgement lapses, etc.
Alcohol was keeping Don's emotions in check. Or rather keeping his emotional trauma away from the surface.
If this were real life,
"I was an orphan-
"GET OUT!!!"
That was a characteristically Peggy type story. Loving, filled with nostalgia. Don tried to use this technique like Peggy does but it was very unlike him so he chose to tell the truth.
Jon Hamm should be playing more vulnerable, honest characters like this instead of the cocky, middle aged men he has played since Mad Men ended.
"Hershey....The only sweet thing in your life."
The partners were horrible after this honesty. I fucking hated Cutler after this.
Ross Murphy it’s a meeting. And don knew it that’s why he said it in that setting, for it to be ignored
Double sales pitch Don! Very effective
The best part is after this when Roger asks Don if any of that was true & after Don says yes, you can see Roger is really affected by it.
I like how Ted is the only one who looks sympathetic because he's also a creative director so he knows the trauma it takes to get there.
If Don had made this confession early in the series, they probably would've let him off the hook. Back then he had nothing to lose. Now he's behaving erratically and the agency is in serious turmoil to the degree that they have no choice but to suspend him. I guess it goes to show how dramatically the circumstances have changed.
Executive: "Wait...I knew I recognized you! Give me back my wallet you little sh-t!"
Brilliant Hamm. Here. Brilliant. To have tears and too much emotion wouldn't have been Draper. True to self. Both the fake one and the real one. At the same time. Amazing
I love this scene because this is where everything starts to go downhill
At the Hershey School on the hill across the street from the factory, there is a bronze statue of Milton Hershey with an orphan boy wrapped in his arms. Below the statue are these words: "His deeds are his monument. His life is our inspiration."
It might have been more interesting if Don’s intentional sabotage by his brutal honest story backfired, and the execs wind up embracing him and his agency because of it-such a talented bastard that he can’t even escape when he wants to.
It's been a while since I've watched this series, but can someone clue me into the look Ted gave Don and vice-versa? Was Ted aware of Don's childhood?
Ted was in a situation that he had asked Don for help with, and Don was planning to ignore Ted because Don was focused on helping himself. I think Ted’s honest desperation during the pitch reminded Don of his younger self.
I like how don Draper thinks he’s needs a drink bc not bc he’s a alcoholic but bc he’s can’t be sober and not tell the truth. He must be drunk to main the illusion and instead of reaching for a drink he instead tells the truth and he stops shaking.
Volume! VOLUME! Do people not know how to prep videos for uploads??
My 2nd favorite show after the sopranos.
I think as he looks at ted he realizes he cant break his family like his family and how he was broken.
This was portrayed as Don stepping in it, making a business blunder. But his real story honestly sold me on Hershey bars more than the cliche one. If I were those executives I would have wanted to hire SCDP even more after hearing that.
Don's creative talent was only matched by his penchant for self destruction.
Which is why THE CRASH is still the best Mad Men episode ever produced
I think his subconscious wanted to destroy his false persona for a long time, and just found better and better ways to do it as he got older.,
“Jesus Christ, Don. We’re selling chocolate, not suicide pills.”
good comment is good
Mow the lawn or roll a john, get a Hershey Bar.
This scene makes me want to chuckle and also cry at the same time. The dissonance between what he proposed and what he actually doles out is very blunt.
The description of his orphanage life actually brought me to tears.
Ted only looks up when Don says “from childhood” like he knows this is about to go very, very bad.
That would be a great commercial, “a kid in a whorehouse enjoying his Hershey’s bar
Ha a Hersheys ad played for me at the beginning of this video
Lmao!
I do believe that this scene must be mandatory viewing for every high school/college senior who is about to go out into the real world.
Lol don't get me wrong, I get a lot from this scene, but I don't understand how showing a bunch of seniors this video will have any impact on them. Alright, kids, before you go, let's sit down and watch this 4 minute Mad Men clip. Alright, have a good life! Lol
@@adamd.3571 hahaha i probably wrote this while drinking
@@friendlyjun Maybe everyone should be forced to watch this scene before they take a drink - or after - or both.
I think of this scene all the time because I am constantly misrepresenting my own background to appear more like the upper middle class person I have become. I don’t lie. I just say I came from a big family and a religious family and that brings about a certain image which is frankly bullshit. I hate that honesty is unprofessional from me but fine from others.
Everybody’s pretending to be somebody.
Spectacular Mad Man
Ironic that if the pitch ended at around 1:12, this would’ve been “in the bag” and an easy win for the Agency. But of course, this thing had to play out and unwind. And I’m so very glad that it did.
Phenomenal performance