Episode Report Card Couch Baron: B+ | 234 USERS: B YOU GRADE IT The Grass Is Always Greener
By Couch Baron | Season 6 | Episode 4 | Aired on 2013.04.21
It's time for the pitch, and, in front of three photos -- French fries, a piece of steak, a burger -- Don says that the images are "tantalizingly incomplete. What's missing? One thing." He and Stan flip over sheets of clear plastic to add the words "Pass the Heinz" atop the pictures. Timmy is like, there's no mention of ketchup and this feels like half an ad, to which Don presents some crap about the consumer's imagination, and honestly, if this kind of concept was a proven success, it'd be one thing, but this whole negative space idea bombed so horribly with Sheraton that it feels like hubris for Don to be trying it again. Timmy smiles that it's "bold" work and he'd like to chew on it, making me realize I wouldn't want to play poker with him, so the SCDP guys leave with smiles on their faces...
...which fade most spectacularly when they run into Chaough, Peggy and an art guy in the hallway, and among the awesome things about it is that the two sets of three people stand regarding each other like this is the Bizarro Jerry episode of Seinfeld. Timmy's underling then opens the door and invites the CGC team in, and Peggy and the art guy can't wait to get out of there, but Chaough can't help himself: "I hope you left us something." Kevin Rahm really is great in this role; the way he consistently gets Don's goat never fails to entertain. When CGC is gone, Stan seethes about the previously unknown "bake-off" situation, and then Don listens at the door as he shoos Stan and Pete away. From inside, he hears Peggy use his "change the conversation" line in discussing the difference between catsup and ketchup and hilariously visibly winces, so it's just as well that he can't see that the art has both the word "ketchup" and the Heinz bottle, two things Timmy wanted. Still, as Don starts to head for the elevator, it looks like he's impressed in spite of himself.