March-November 1960

Bertram Cooper, Senior Partner

Don Draper, Creative Director, delivers one of his most memorable pitches, “The Carousel,” to Kodak.

Salvatore “Sal” Romano, Art Director

Roger Sterling , Head of Accounts Services, Senior Partner

Pete Campbell, Junior Account Manager

Joan Holloway, Office Manager

Peggy Olson, Secretary, begins writing copy, creating campaigns for Belle Jolie lipstick and a weight-loss client.

Copywriter Paul Kinsey is the first to champion Peggy’s writing career. Paul leaves Sterling Cooper at the end of season three but reappears in season five, having converted to Hare Krishna.

February – October 1962

Don Draper becomes a partner.

Peggy is promoted to junior copywriter after pitching “Take it. Break it. Share it. Love it.” to Popsicle.

Sterling Cooper is sold to a London agency, Puttnam, Powell, and Lowe, in a deal that takes place while Don is soul-searching in California.

Seeing a change in the world of advertising, Harry crane insists on heading up a new television department at Sterling Cooper.

May – December 1963

Owned by Puttnam, Powell, and Lowe

Lane Pryce, Financial Officer, fires Don, Roger, and Bert to release them from their contracts so they can start their own agency.

Sal is fired when he refuses advances from Lee Garner, Jr., the son of the owner of Sterling Cooper’s top client, Lucky Strike.

Pete Campbell is promoted to head of accounts

Joan Holloway resigns to get married.

Sterling Cooper’s former head of accounts, Herman “Duck” Phillips, attempts to recruit Peggy and Pete to a rival agency. While he is unsuccessful, he does begin an affair with Peggy.

November 1964 – October 1965

Lane Pryce becomes a partner.

After losing the Lucky Strike account, Don publishes a full-page New York Times ad condemning the cigarette industry.

Pete Campbell becomes a partner.

Joan Holloway returns as Joan Harris.

Megan Calvet, Secretary

A market research consultant for SCDP throughout season four, Faye Miller also has the dubious distinction of being romantically involved with Don when he spontaneously proposes to Megan.

May 1966 – Spring 1967

Lane Pryce hangs himself in his office.

Creative Team

Peggy resigns to join Cutler, Gleason, and Chaough.

Megan becomes a copywriter, successfully saves the Heinz account, and resigns to pursue her acting career.

Joan Holloway becomes a partner when she agrees to sleep with the head of Jaguar dealerships to land the account.

Don and Roger publish an ad claiming SCDP is an equal-opportunity employer only to have dozens of African American women show up looking for work. They decide to hire one secretary, Dawn Chambers.

December 1967 – November 1968

Creative Team

Ted Chaough joins as creative director after CGC merger.

Peggy returns as copy chief after CGC merger.

Don arranges a merger with Cutler, Gleason, and Chaough to land the Chevy account but is sent on leave after he has a breakdown during a pitch to Hershey’s.

Joan Holloway attempts to legitimize her partner role by bringing in a new client, Avon.

Bob Benson appears at SC&P as a junior account executive in season six. In season seven, after a failed attempt to make a pass at Pete and a failed marriage proposal to Joan, Bob inexplicably disappears.

January – July 1969

Bertram Cooper dies while watching the moon landing.

Creative Team

With Don’s encouragement, Peggy nails the Burger Chef pitch and lands the account.

Don returns from leave of absence as a copywriter.

Joan is promoted to accounts manager.

After SC&P wins Sunkist, Ted and Pete relocated to Los Angeles to manage a west coast satellite office.

By the beginning of season seven, Ken Cosgrove sports a cane and an eye patch, having been in a car accident and shot in the side of the face by a Chevy executive.

Roger secretly meets with McCann Erickson and negotiates a sale of 51% of SC&P under the agreement that the agency will remain an independent subsidiary of McCann. McCann does not hold up their end of the bargain.

April 1970

Joan accepts a 50-cents-on-the-dollar buyout of her McCann contract and starts her own production firm, Holloway Harris.

When Pete – with Duck’s help- lands a position as head of marketing for Learjet, he reunites with Trudy and relocates his family to Wichita.

While Roger puts in some time at McCann, he presumably retires, having married Megan’s mother, Marie.

During a meeting with McCann’s many creative directors, Don flees the city and spends much of the final season roaming the country. Series creator Matthew Weiner leaves Don’s ending ambiguous: The enigmatic protagonist is last seen meditating at a California retreat, smirking and quite possibly thinking up an ad for Coke – or maybe not.

Newhouse Syracuse University

Communications@Syracuse