Episode Report Card Couch Baron: B- | 373 USERS: B+ YOU GRADE IT It's a Gi…Boy!
By Couch Baron | Season 3 | Episode 5 | Aired on 2009.09.13
The next day, Don and an entire tube of Brylcreem are walking down the hall in the hospital, flowers in hand, when he sees Hobart wheeling his wife down the hall, sans baby. Don smiles at him, and Hobart is smiling too before he catches Don's eye, but then drops his gaze like...well, like Don's a prison guard, really. I'm used to having to parse stuff with this show, but for real: Huh? If something happened to his baby, as seems possible from its absence, that still doesn't explain the huge smile followed by the "Oh shit" reaction. Is he regretting all that stuff he said about being a better man after only one day? I don't understand it, because the director has done some of the best episodes of the series, but this one is not getting it done for me. Anyway...
...let's cut to Pete, who's meeting with Admiral, apparently for the first time as their account exec given that he's saying how Burt Peterson's firing was "undignified." But hilarious, he adds non-verbally, and everyone in the room agrees. Pete introduces Harry, and then brightly brings up the fact that Admiral's sales are growing among "Negroes." One of the guys soberly says he knows, which almost stops Pete in his tracks. Next time listen to those instincts, kid. However, he pushes on through the new chill in the air to pitch an "interesting strategy" -- buying space in Ebony, Jet, and other publications marketed to that demographic would be cheap and, apparently, would provide a terrific return. The other guy skeptically asks if he's proposing a Negro ad and a white ad, partially wondering if Pete means to increase SC's fee, but Pete says no -- there will be one "integrated" ad. The other guy snarks that he doesn't think that's legal, and Pete, suddenly wising up and getting disgusted as a result, dismisses the joke in saying that it of course is. Not that Pete's idea is definitely such a cash cow, as the lead guy plays devil's advocate: "Who's to say these Negroes aren't buying these because they think white people want them?" Not to mention the even less PC question of whether white people would continue to buy them if it were perceived as an African-American brand. But this is what market research is for, and the fact that the clients aren't even willing to entertain this potential moneymaker suggests, in keeping with the season's theme, these guys are stuck in the past while Pete's ready for change. Of course, given how this meeting went, he might need to be ready for the change of going to work for Jews.