For yesterday's class, you were asked to watch the clip below from the series, "Mad Men," in which Sterling Cooper's creative head, Don Draper speaks suddenly and extemporaneously to his staff which has been pressed into working the weekend to craft an advertising campaign for American Airlines -- desperate to get out a message to counter the bad publicity surrounding a recent crash.
You were required to provide an analysis of Draper's message by applying basic concepts of American Exceptionalism as studied in class. Remember that we will have more activities such as this to apply and deepen your understanding of American Exceptionalism. Hopefully, these activities will help deepen your understanding of the concepts we are studying and assist you in completing the assignment on American exceptionalism. Below is complication of some possible responses.
American Airlines is no more about the past than America is---
In this line, Draper appeals to a sense of patriotism – equating the company with the nation. At its core, American patriotism is based on freedom. American Airlines represents freedom (Religiosity - source of utopian aspirations). On an individual level, the airline industry represents freedom to travel which is a means of exerting power over one's own life. In a larger sense, the power of flight broadens interstate commerce and allows America to do for itself and to expand by doing business in foreign lands (Industriousness - self reliance - getting ahead). This idea comes back full circle to patriotism because when Americans do business abroad, they instinctively bring their rugged individualism, their drive, their passion for freedom and their nation with them. As Conrad Hilton said, "It's my purpose in life to bring America to the world whether they like it or not." In this vision, American Airlines is at once America's chariot and ambassador.
Ask not about Cuba, ask not about the bomb. We are going to the moon.
Here, Draper goes beyond optimism to conviction. In 1962, reaching the moon was yet to be done, but Don Draper is convinced that it WILL come to pass. America does not await a fate - America has a DESTINY as long as people dream and are bent on defeating the impossible.
Build it and they will come – Field of Dreams
America is a nation of DOERS -- take action and have dreams – Ted Kennedy, in his eulogy to his brother, Bobby said," As he (Bobby Kennedy) said many times, in many parts of this nation, to those he touched and who sought to touch him: Some men see things as they are and say why. I dream of things that never were and say why not."
Utopian aspirations and getting ahead tied up in one --
There is no such thing as American history – only a frontier –
Colonization was the frontier in America. This was followed by expansion west through the Louisiana Purchase, the exploits of Lewis and Clark, culminating in Manifest Destiny and extending on to the moon. There would always be another frontier for Americans because they refused to limit their imagination and as a people embraced man's inner need for challenges.
This line is also a bit counterintuitive – isn’t America’s history something to be proud of? Isn’t it the story of who they are as a people? What Draper means is that in the context of the post World War II era – America IS the future. Why? How can Draper be sure? Because America saved the world from Nazi tyranny. America had rebuilt Europe and fed the hungry. America was the leader of the Free World and protected the world from Soviet hegemony.
