"Mad Man" - Propaganda politica e guerra

Ritornando al tema della propaganda politica, il legame con la guerra appare evidente in più momenti: la Russia comunista rappresenta una minaccia sempre più concreta, e alla fine della seconda stagione l’emergenza missilistica diventa il centro dell’ultimo episodio, intitolato “Rivelazioni”. Inoltre, nel corso della prima serie si scopre, passo dopo passo, che Don Draper aveva partecipato alla Seconda guerra mondiale come volontario, e che aveva in seguito assunto l’identità del suo comandante (appunto Don Draper), cambiando il suo vero nome (Dick Whitman), per sfuggire alla sua precedente vita e a condizioni familiari inaccettabili. Più in generale, il legame della propaganda con il tema bellico è un altro dei fili conduttori di Mad Men, tanto da spingere vari spettatori a dare proprie elaborazioni sul web proprio in riferimento a questo tema. Si tratta di alcune fanfiction (o, in gergo, fanfic o fic), opere scritte dai fan prendendo come spunto le storie o i personaggi di un lavoro originale.
Segue una di queste fanfictions, prodotta da un fan della serie, intitolata “War Propaganda” e particolarmente interessante perché presenta i protagonisti intenti a discutere su una propaganda in favore della guerra in Vietnam. Essi appaiono simili, come caratterizzazione, a quelli della serie televisiva, con i loro personali attributi ed espressioni che sono noti a chi guardi anche pochi episodi di Mad Men. In rosso sono evidenziati i momenti “costruttivi” del loro operato: quelli, cioè, in cui essi (e in particolare chi parla, Ken Cosgrove, giovane ed emergente pubblicitario della “Sterling Cooper”) propongono idee per creare un’efficace propaganda bellica.
(Il brano è tratto dal sito https://www.fanfiction.net/s/4831736/1/War_Propaganda)

“You know what I like about young men in America?” asked Don Draper as he was having a meeting with the advertising crew about the Vietnam war propaganda they were supposed to do, “They are always so attracted to danger and the lies of patriotism. They are so attracted the adventure that war brings that they forget about their families and how their loved ones will suffer.”

Don threw his Lucky Strikes cigarette in a wastebasket near his office desk. The men in the room Pete Campbell, Salvatore Romano, Ken Cosgrove, and Paul Kinsey all listened carefully to Don carefully. Old man Paul thought Don was being unusually sinister in the way he was speaking. Don was usually real nice and straightforward guy, the most brilliant New York ad-man ever. Paul guessed the war changed everybody even good ol’ Don.

“God damn it!” exclaimed Don, “Why the hell does United States have to go to war now.”

Everybody was silent as Don grasped his fists together.

“I mean we already had a Korean war but now we have to have another one. This is unbelieveable!”

Don was young and unexperienced with the ideology of war. He didn’t see why people would risk their lives to fight some foreign people they didn’t know. Don and the other ad-men were lucky they weren’t going to fight in the war.

Paul began to speak, “Don, you know how it is with. North Vietnam is a communist nation and with the cold war going on the U.S. has to go to war especially because the North Vietnamese sunk on of their shipping vessels.”

“So what? It’s just one vessel. I have a seventeen year old teenage son who’s eligible to be drafted into this war. The worst part about it is he wants to go. My son wants to go get himself killed for a country full of crap,” said Don harshly.

Ken Cosgrove was real glad that he and his wife didn’t have any children or else he would be in the same parental position as Don. No parent ever wants their kid to go to war its nonsense.

“Well lets get back to business and forget about this,” said Don with a more serious tone now, “Does anyone have any ideas of what we’re gonna do to convince young men to go fight for their country?”

Ken was the first to respond, “I got one!”

“Go ahead Ken.”

Ken stood up and started to explain, “How ‘bout this. Don you said young people want action and adventure well lets do this. Vietnam is a jungle paradise and jungle’s always make a good scene for adventure in the movies. We make a poster with a picture of an American literally standing on top of the body of the dead body of Vietnamese soldier. He’s got a big old M-16 in his hand and he’s ready to pound. There’s fire everywhere and helicopters flying around bringing in new troops. In the bottom of the poster we put in, ‘Fight the Vietnamese soldiers for the greatest adventure of your life.’ Well how about it fellas?”

Everyone seemed to like Ken’s ideas and gave positive comments about it. Everyone but the mastermind ad-genius, Don. When Ken asked Don what he thought. Don simply looked at him and exclaimed, “Ken what the hell are you thinking?!”

Everyone in the room was surprised by Don’s harsh tone. They thought Ken’s idea was brilliant. Don however could see flaws that no one else was thinking.

“First of all let me point out the obvious. Yes young men want action, adventure, and all that stuff but nobody likes to kill people. I mean do you think your kids want to grow up becoming murderers? So scratch out any sights of Vietnamese dead corpses,” suggested Don.

Salvatore then argued, “But that’s the whole point of war isn’t it? Killing people is what war is all about. Young people know that and yet they still go fighting of in wars.”

Don replied understandingly, “That’s true but whenever young people sign up to draft in the army or any other branch of the military or armed forces they only think of the thrill and never the sins of killing. So in order for them to join the services we need them to have a redefined version of what war is. One where you never see violence or blood but only young men and buddies with guns acting tough and having the fun of their lives. A universe where it is mandatory to go fight for your country and rid the world of evil.”

“That seems kind of farfetched,” replied Salvatore.

Pete Campbell then spoke for the first time, “Yes but it has some great insight in redefining the meaning of war so it won’t seem evil or violently terrifying. If we can create some kind of propaganda that will do exactly that then we will have the minds of those young men literally in our hands.”

The men in the room started to think about this seriously. They smoked their poisonous cigarettes as they tried to let a good idea pop into their head. Don took out a sheet of paper and a pencil and made two columns. The first column read ‘What Young Men want in War’ and the second one read ‘The Bad Qualities of Warfare.’ Don listed the following in the column ‘What Young Men want in War’: adventure, opportunity for patriotism, women, experience, and reward. In the column ‘The Bad Qualities of Warfare’ Don listed: killing, conditions, death of friends or comrades, homesickness, and fear.

Don then showed the list to everyone in the room to let them examine it. When everyone finished examining it they looked at each and considered it. Then Ken got an idea and got up to speak to everyone.

“There is one thing we can do,” said Ken.

Everyone then paid close attention to what Ken was saying, “I agree with Don we’ll get rid the dead Japanese corpse. We’ll put a gang of soldiers together with a soldier and his girlfriend in front of her. Then we’ll have him say, ‘This war has definitely gotten me cool with the ladies.’ Then we’ll have the caption say, ‘Listen up young people of America! This is your time! This your opportunity to help your country fight against the sins of the communists. Enlist now!’ Well how about it?”

After Ken finished speaking everyone smiled at the genius and brilliance in the idea. They then looked at Don to see his expression. Unlike last time Ken spoke he was now smiling and impressed too. This was what he wanted to see in his employees.

He then asked, “So now that we have the idea what do we do now?”

Paul answered, “We make it into reality.”

“Shit!” exclaimed Salvatore, “I knew this was coming. God damn it!”