beachdeath:

man i watched the whole mad men finale like, “wow this is an uncharacteristically optimistic episode it seems like just about every character is moving forward reassured of their capacity to love and be loved” and every review is like, “ah yes lots of cynical messaging in this here mad men finale” like huh???? because it closed with an ad? it’s a show about advertising… was it supposed to end with don renouncing capitalism… must we read the inclusion of the coke ad as a cynical undercut of all that came before? could we just read it as the ultimate expression of over-the-top big-hearted compassion and connection from a man who once scoffed at including the word “love” in his ads? as a masterwork from an artist in his chosen medium? if don were a musician or a filmmaker or an author and he wrote a smash-hit song or made a smash-hit movie or wrote a smash-hit book would anybody criticize those things as inherently empty and hollow even though the music industry and the film industry and the publishing industry are inextricably bound up in capitalism? is it not enough to look at a coke ad and see a beautiful face, huge