- [Michael] Hi, I'm Michael.
This is Lessons from the Screenplay.
Don Draper, the protagonist of the television series
Mad Men knows how to tell a good story.
After all, his success as a 1960s advertising executive
hinges on creating an emotional bond
between a consumer and a product.
To do this, Don uses all the tools at his disposal.
There's the slogan, or text, of a marketing campaign.
- Bell Jolie Lipstick, mark your man.
- [Michael] There's the deeper meaning being created,
the subtext.
- She wants to tell the world, he's mine.
He belongs to me, not you.
She marks her man with her lips.
- [Michael] And finally, there's symbolic imagery,
evocative visuals that enhance the power of this meaning.
The writers of Mad Men use these same tools
to craft emotionally resonant stories.
In each episode, we watch characters
struggle to maintain stoic facades
in order to disguise the pain that lives
just below the surface.
So today, I want to examine one particular
episode of Mad Men, the acclaimed season one finale,
titled The Wheel.
To explore how the writers use text, subtext,
and symbolic imagery to create layers of meaning,
and to see how Don Draper himself
brings all these story telling tools to bear
in one of the show's most powerful and memorable pitches.
Let's take a look at Mad Men's The Wheel.
In his book, Story, Robert McKee explains
the difference between text and subtext.
"Text means the sensory surface of a work of art.
"In film, it's the images onscreen and the soundtrack
"of the dialogue, music, and sound effects.
"What we see. What we hear.
"What people say. What people do.
"Subtext is the life under that surface,
"thoughts and feelings both known and unknown,
"hidden by behavior."
The text is simply what is happening
on the surface of a story.
And in this episode, it's used to set up
Don's plot line.
- I went to the athletic club today
and learned that Kodak still isn't happy
with the campaign for their new slide projector.
- [Michael] Don's objective in this episode
is to put together a pitch to try to win
a big account: Kodak.
- They call it the donut, or the wheel.
They're expecting something along those lines.
- [Michael] But in addition to setting up Don's plot,
the text also introduces the theme
of Don's arc in this episode.
- [Michael] Don has been continually prioritizing work
over family, but more importantly,
Don is struggling to understand what family even means.
- [Michael] All of this set up happens on a textual level.
We see and hear Duck give Don his assignment:
- If you could find a way to put the wheel in the future,
into something with some legs,
you could make me look good my first month here.
- [Michael] And witness Don choose work over family.
- I don't think you want to go.
- I'm sorry, was I unclear about that?
- [Michael] When Don does his big pitch to Kodak
at the end of the episode,
the client assumes his pitch will operate
on this literal level of text.
- So have you figured out a way to work the wheel into it?
- We know it's hard because wheels aren't really seen
as exciting technology, even though they are the original.
- [Michael] Don acknowledges that most advertising
works this way, by introducing a surface level
novelty or gimmick.
- But there's the rare occasion when the public
can be engaged on a level beyond flash.
If they have a sentimental bond with the product.
- [Michael] Don is talking about creating
a deeper level of meaning, subtext.
In this episode, subtext is used to push
characters along their arcs,
and communicate their mental state to the audience.
In particular, subtext does the heavy lifting
in every beat of Betty's storyline.
Betty's story begins when her friend, Francine,
makes an unscheduled visit.
Francine has opened her phone bill
to discover that her husband has been having an affair.
- Do you know he spends two nights a week at the Waldorf?
I'm so stupid.
- [Michael] The text of the scene
is pretty straight forward.
But there is a moment of subtext
that creates the inciting incident of Betty's arc.
- [Michael] Both characters understand the meaning
of this exchange, even though neither of them
acknowledge it in the text.
Francine is implying that Don is also unfaithful.
After Francine leaves, Betty retrieves her own
phone bill from Don's office.
Without a single line of dialogue,
we understand that Betty is now suspicious of Don.
Later, because we know Betty's mental state,
we understand that when she tells Don
about the incident with Francine,
she's actually interrogating him
about their own marriage.
- Sit with me.
- [Michael] This makes the scene
loaded with subtext, as it's clear to the audience
that Betty is not really talking about
the other couple at all.
- [Michael] And Don, does not pass the test.
- [Michael] So afterward, Betty opens the phone bill
and calls one of the numbers,
to discover that Don has been secretly
talking to her psychiatrist.
- [Michael] This sets up the final beat
of her character arc,
which takes place at Betty's therapy session.
Her psychiatrist thinks it's business as usual.
- [Michael] But we understand via subtext
that she's actually using Dr. Wayne
to confront Don about his infidelity.
- [Michael] Betty suspects Don's infidelity,
confirms her suspicions, and confronts him,
all without mentioning it to him
in a single line of text.
Don also understands the power of subtext.
Returning to his pitch to Kodak,
after Don again acknowledges the power
of a straight forward textual approach,
- [Michael] He presents the specific subtext
he envisions for this campaign.
- [Michael] Right before introducing
the final tool that he uses
to emotionally affect an audience, symbolic imagery.
Within this episode and throughout Mad Men,
the show's creators borrow imagery
loaded with cultural meaning
and then manipulate that imagery
to enhance the emotion of the story.
For example, when Pete Campbell exchanges
a wedding gift for a gun,
a symbol of power and masculinity,
- Same price as a chip and dip.
- [Michael] He's really telegraphing
how emasculated and lost he feels.
When Lane Pryce's wife buys him a Jaguar,
not knowing that he's lost everything,
Lane ironically uses the symbol of freedom
to try to take his own life.
And after Don and Peggy spend a dramatic evening
trying to develop a pitch for a suitcase,
an object that represents travel,
Don has a vision of a much more permanent departure.
The Wheel episode also borrows symbolic imagery
associated with the client Don is pitching to.
As he struggles to come up with the perfect pitch
for Kodak's slide projector,
a device often used to display happy family photos,
each step of his journey is punctuated
by photographic imagery.
When Don finds a childhood photograph
of him and his estranged brother Adam,
he's inspired to get back in touch with him.
- His name is Adam Whitman.
- [Michael] But the promise of that family photo,
quickly disappears in the tragic reality.
- Jesus, I hate to be the one to tell you this,
but he hung himself.
- What?
- [Michael] Don avoids the pain of this revelation
by drinking and working even harder.
Asking Harry for help on the Kodak pitch.
The conversation turns to Harry's brief dabble
in photography and why he thinks
photos have such emotional power.
- [Michael] The simple cultural meaning of photos
representing happy family memories
is complicated by the events of Don's journey.
But the full power of photographs
isn't demonstrated until the last moments
of Don's presentation to Kodak,
as they win him the sale, and complete his arc.
As he begins his slide show,
Don once again artfully uses all the tools
at his disposal.
- [Michael] Don uses the text of the presentation,
the words that he's speaking,
- [Michael] To explain the subtext they want to convey
to the consumer.
- [Michael] And he uses symbolic imagery,
actual slides,
- [Michael] To enhance the emotion of his pitch.
- [Michael] But at the same time
that Don is using these tools on his clients,
- It's not called the wheel.
- [Michael] The show's creators are using
these tools on us.
- It's called a carousel.
- [Michael] In the text of the scene
Don is simply pitching Kodak,
completing his plot line for the episode.
But because we've seen the problems
he's facing in his marriage,
and the painful revelations he's experienced,
his words are loaded with subtext.
And finally, there's symbolic imagery.
- It let's us travel the way a child travels.
- [Michael] The family photos that Don has chosen to use
- Round and around, and back home again.
- [Michael] Demonstrating that he might finally appreciate
the importance of family.
- To a place where we know we are loved.
- [Michael] The episode concludes
with one final powerful symbolic image.
- Hello? - Don?
- [Michael] When Don arrives home
ready to embrace his family
and spend Thanksgiving with them.
- I'm coming with you.
- You are?
- Daddy's coming with you.
- Daddy! - Daddy!
- [Michael] An image that lasts only a moment,
before the truth is revealed.
- Hello?
- [Michael] That happy family doesn't exist for Don.
- Hello?
- [Michael] It's merely a place
he now aches to go again.
- Good luck at your next meeting.
- [Michael] It's no accident that Mad Men
is set in the world of mid 20th century
American advertising.
There's no better time and place
to explore the gap between appearances and reality,
between what people say and what they actually mean.
Just as advertisers create and use
iconic images to shape our hopes and dreams,
the writers of Mad Men definitely use these same images
to reveal the inner contradictions
of their characters' lives.
And for us, just like for Don Draper,
there lies surprising complexity,
pain, and emotion beneath the surface
of every episode of Mad Men.
I love the subtext fueled drama of Mad Men,
but I also love watching the show
because it's fun to think about advertising.
It's not really that different from film making.
You're trying to manipulate an audience
into having an emotional reaction
while sharing information with them.
If you want to get your Don Draper on
and learn more about marketing,
there are a bunch of marketing classes
available on Skillshare.
For example, I recently checked out the class
Brand Management: Creating what Sets You Apart.
The class is an introduction
into what branding really means.
And it applies whether you're starting a company,
or simply trying to figure out
your own personal brand as a creator.
You can check out this class as well as
the thousands of other classes
available on Skillshare by clicking on the link
in the description below.
The first 1000 people to use this link,
will get a two month free trial
of Skillshare premium membership.
Thanks to Skillshare for sponsoring this video.
Hey guys, hope you enjoyed the video.
We recently added new tiers to our Patreon,
including one that gives you access
to a monthly Q and A with me and the team,
and another that lets you join
our monthly film club video chat
where we all jump on a video call
and chat about movies.
So if you've been enjoying the videos,
please consider supporting this channel on Patreon.
Thank you to our patrons for making
this channel possible, and thank your for watching.