Pete: "It's like I send you for cake, and you eat the cake along the way!"
Peggy (in an earlier ep.): The only way to get in is inside a cake.

Roger and Cutler both did the "this didn't happen" this ep, too.
Cutler to Benson, while standing at the window, when Benson apologized for intervening with Ginsberg.
Roger to Don: "You're no good at swimming."

Cutler summed up the men's philosophy (excepting that of Pete) when he and Ted, Don and Roger approached the Chevy presentation: "For the record: I'm all for this if it works; I'm against this if it fails." Roger seconded that.

Yep!  Also, much about this episode reminded me of "The Sopranos". Here are but 4 examples:

I think Joan listened to Bob Benson's record, " How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling", (and probably some negotiation skills materials) before meeting with the Avon guy the second time. That's why - since she didn't realize the importance of Peggy's spiel - she wanted to hear what the client had to…

As has been posted on previous pages - and shown in previous episodes - it's a viewing room used for observing focus groups. Incidents and people associated the Mad Men's use of viewing rooms are coming full circle in this episode.

I thought the hash (and maybe the alcohol) might have been spiked, as Don's drink was in "The Jet Set".

I agree with and enjoyed the posts in this thread.

What Carol Brown said. And I add: the falling imagery for  Don = the "Free Fallin'" song for Tony Soprano and the multiple references to the image of a piano (Damocles' sword) dangling menacingly over Tony's head. It's symbolic, not literal.

True.  There was no Anna to escape to this time, and Don was stuck during this short trip with business meetings, Harry, and Roger.

The way Don strew his clothes and positioned his shoes in his hotel room also looked very much like the Royal Hawaiian ad.

@avclub-525f76574b3a2a5bcb4da793c92a16fb:disqus The Carnation guy's comparison of Carnation Instant Breakfast and breakfast cereal = the Clearasil/Ponds argument all over again. In the latter instance, SCDP didn't push back hard to reiterate the fact that the two products were not direct competitors; instead, they…

Yep.  And I loved how Roger (who's clearly Establishment) pushed Danny (who's noticeably smaller, and a self-professed peacenik) to violence. The last straw, if you'll notice, was Roger's stating that he was a former boxer and loved violence (tantamount to cops brandishing weapons and aggression). Mirrored the…

@ Latverian Diplomat - Not just one, but two such accounts: Manischewitz and Chevy.

But where's Phyllis?

@ K. Thrace - Thanks for pointing that out. I'm surprised detail-oriented Weiner expected the audience to make that connection, since Megan's tee-shirt star was the wrong color for the Vietnam Star. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wik…. Coloring-wise, it's the negative of (and therefore closer to) the star on the Cuban…

@Thomas R                                                                            - I had the impression Benson had driven to Joan's apt. that morning, to pick her up.  I think that b/c Benson had brought two cups of store-bought coffee (presumably on the way in), and when Roger came over, Benson offered to give…

Pete's got all of the above issues, plus he's a blackmailer. So…no…I can't relate. At all.

I think that's Colon.

Ted and Don's comparisons of Fleischmann's margarine to Chivas Regal and Ballantine Beer, respectively, evoked two pop culture references that refer to spies:
…In the first six minutes of the movie "The Spook Who Sat By the Door", the 10 black candidates for a CIA "spook" job toasted to their progress to that point,…