Who is Don Draper?

In the beginning of season 4 of Mad Men a reporter for Advertising Age asks Don Draper one of the key questions that many fans and critics of the show have been focused on since its launch in 2007. In the episode "Public Relations" Draper's identity and his value as a father, ad man, and a friend are consistently challenged. In previous seasons Don has shown to be a man who possesses an innate sense about his business and his life, but in this episode Weiner begins to illustrate that Don Draper is more than "Dick Whitman" his birth name. He is, in fact an example of the intergenerational struggles that many men faced as the definition of American masculinity as brutal and stoic was shifting. Don is unwilling to talk about himself to the reporter, arguing that because he was born in the Midwest that he was raised to believe that a man does not have to explain who he is or what he does, even if that man is the creative director of a struggling new ad agency like Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce. What Don does not realize is that his brand of masculinity is no longer relevant in the 1960s and more importantly that it is harming his potential asset to the company. Yet, the reporter, a one-legged veteran of the Korean war views Don's cold and clinical nature as an insult to his readers and perhaps even to his clients.

Don and the company's fortunes in November of 1964 when the season begins are reliant on his ad for Glo-Coat floor wax and Lucky Strikes cigarettes. The reporter asks Don where he came up with the idea for the commercial, which is featured later when the audience is shown Don's apartment in the city. As he sits on the couch and watches the television we see a commercial that captures the fear and fascination with the Old West and the metaphor of the frontier (a metaphor brilliantly used by Kennedy and Johnson to get elected and sell the country on the space program) in the domestic realm. The way in which the commercial uses the imagery of a clock on the wall and imposing shadows recalls the look of Zinneman's High Noon. In many ways the ad encapsulates the fears of Don Draper as he and his colleagues struck out at the end of season 3 to form their own company, at a time when the world was mourning the death of a president and about to embrace the new image of masculinity as a model of cool detachment rather than that of the stiff upper lip model of the 1930s, 40s and 50s.

The relationship between Don and the client has never been without controversy or rancor in the series but when Don's ideas for utilizing a new model of "soft-core" sexuality are not embraced by a potential client Jentzen- Weiner reveals for the first time that Don is no longer simply a man of grace or charm. Instead he is shown to be a man who places principal over profit, as he yells at the clients and throws them out of his office. Don's anger at the clients and over his colleagues opinion of the unfavorable article in Advertising Age along with his encounter with a non-compliant Betty and her new husband Henry Francis reveal that the man of composure and rational ideas is slowly fragmenting under the weight of his own inability to understand his identity and numerous roles. While Don's philandering was difficult to watch in the first three seasons, despite the reality of his dysfunctional marriage to Betty, when Don is shown paying for sex on Thanksgiving the scene captures the tragedy of Don and his brand of masculinity. As Don is having sex with a call girl, who it is hinted at sees him on a regular basis, he revels as she slaps him hard in the face during sex. The holidays are often trying times for people and Don's actions on Thanksgiving are pathetic and illustrative of how he is losing control of himself and his world. What is intriguing about the character of Don Draper are the moments where he exhibits true compassion and tenderness because often he seems more like a machine than a man.

The other key factor that points toward the intergenerational conflict in the episode is when Peggy Olsen along with Pete Campbell stage a fight in a grocery store to help increase a clients brand recognition. The stunt is successful at first but when Peggy loses control of the actresses involved, her brash and more modern thinking are challenged by Don's displeasure at her acting without consulting him first on the idea. Don attempts to apologize to Peggy who tells him "We're all here because of you. All we want to do is please you." Peggy's statements along with a moment of self realization lead Don to set up another press opportunity with a reporter for the Wall Street Journal. Unlike in the first interview, here we see Don assume his swagger and cocky attitude mixed with charm as he tells the reporter "Last year our agency was being swallowed whole. I could die of boredom or holster up my guns. So I walked into Lane Pryce's office and said Fire Us. Within a year we'd taken over two floors ( a bold boast because in fact the company only occupies one floor) of the Time-Life building." Don's statement is illustrative of an image of American masculinity as rugged, individual and linked to the myth of the frontier. What is even more interesting about this moment is that for the first time Don realizes that he can use his skills as an ad man to sell people his image without having to compromise on his own belief that men don't need to talk about themselves or their accomplishments.