Loveday Writing

Joyce, who has now settled in at the Minx office and is friendly with the staff, goes with Doug to advertiser meetings excited at the prospect of bringing in revenue. However, her excitement quickly fades when she and Doug meet with various companies who sell sex products and advertise explicitly by objectifying women. When they leave their last meeting, Joyce expresses her frustration and says they need to be pitching to high-end companies, but Doug points out that those companies won’t want to put their ad next to the centrefold. Joyce suggests that she approach them directly, by herself, when Doug goes back to his office and vents to Tina, she tells him that sex toy company, Pleasure Garden, is happy to advertise their vibrators in Minx but their advertising staff have never written ads for women and they want his staff to write it.

We then see Joyce and Shelly at their tennis club, viewing centrefold photos when the club’s President, Mr. Ross approaches them at their table. He makes condescending remarks on their food and runs his hand down Joyce’s arm. When Shelly tells her that the tennis club is a place of business and multiple CEOs are members, this gives her the idea to ask them about advertising. The idea is a bust as none of them want to talk to her (although some compliment her on her tennis skills), and as they leave, Mr. Ross stops them and tells her it’s inappropriate and refers to her as the club’s rabble-rouser.

Meanwhile, Doug’s male advertising staff pitch him ideas for the vibrator ad, only for Doug to dismiss one as being too political, another for being shamey, and a third for being mean to single women, telling them that they don’t want to bully women they want to get them off. Later, he asks Bambi and Tina to provide a female perspective on the draft ads but they don’t manage to get anywhere. Moments later, Joyce comes into the office and tells them she managed to convince Mr. Ross to advertise one of his companies, Beckley Cosmetics, in Minx, however Mr. Ross wants to meet Doug at the tennis club’s summer soiree to discuss it further. Doug points out that Mr. Ross wants to meet her male publisher and calls the meeting bullshit, but they’ll all go and if it fails, she has to be on board with Pleasure Garden’s advertisement.

When Joyce arrives at the summer soiree, she finds Glenn is there with his new girlfriend, Kitty, whom she used to babysit. The Minx team arrive shortly after, dressed to the nines in attire from the Rich & Horny (one of Doug’s titles) wardrobe. Shelly then introduces herself, welcoming them immediately by complimenting them on their outfits. Doug and Joyce leave to see Mr. Ross, however he’s only open to discussing the advertising with Doug, and they go off alone to talk on the tennis club’s balcony.

When Joyce sees Mr. Ross walk away, she goes to see Doug. Doug, clearly looking uncomfortable, tells Joyce that Mr. Ross will only go ahead with advertising in Minx if he can spend a night with Bambi. Doug gives Joyce a card from Mr. Ross which has the address of a motel where he’d like to meet up with Bambi and he defers this decision to her, clearly disgusted, telling her that the card shows what Mr. Ross and the other men at the tennis club are really like.

Later in the evening, as he is hitting on a club waitress, Joyce confronts him, causing a scene, revealing to everyone that she gave up playing tennis after Mr. Ross groped her as a pre-teen. However this revelation doesn’t cause the outrage that it should and Mr. Ross says that he’s glad her father isn’t around to see her like this, which causes her to punch him, which leads to him choking on the shrimp he was eating, and Bambi having to give him the Heimlich manoeuvre. It’s later revealed that Bambi put more force into the manoeuvre, breaking three of Mr. Ross’ ribs, as Doug told her what he proposed. Doug admits to Joyce that he would like high-end advertisers to be a part of Minx as much as she does.

The episode ends with Shelly revealing to Joyce that she has a vibrator of her own as her husband, Lenny, can’t satisfy her and suggests a vibrator for Joyce try. After Joyce tries one, she comes up with a slogan for the vibrator ad.

Overall, I felt that this was a solid second episode. While Doug and Joyce take the next logical step in getting Minx off the ground by courting advertisers, there was also solid character development with Bambi and Shelly. Working with Joyce has provided Bambi with newfound feminism that she tries to put to good use in a centrefold photo shoot, she wants to contribute more to Minx, and she is the first to congratulate Joyce for getting Mr. Ross on board with advertising. Bambi’s newfound feminism and desire to do more with her life than be a centrefold model is contrasted well with Mr. Ross’ desire to spend a night with her, as a condition of agreeing to be an advertising partner.

I also appreciated the fact that Doug was clearly disgusted by Mr. Ross’ request, and the fact that he was disgusted, deferred the decision to Joyce rather than forced the issue, and told Bambi about it, perfectly proved the double standards that Doug had been pointing out to Joyce throughout the episode – whilst Doug is a pornographer, he is not a sleaze, whereas Mr. Ross who constantly asks for decorum at the club, requests a night with Bambi as if she’s only a sex object and not a human being, without a second thought.  

In regards to Shelly, I appreciated that she instantly befriended Bambi, Richie, Tina and Doug at the tennis club without judgement. Shelly revealing to Joyce that she uses a vibrator and her reasons why is another way of demonstrating that she is more open minded than her sister, and also brings up the important issue of women enjoying sex, whether it’s by themselves or with their husbands/partners.            

Now that Joyce has come up with a slogan for the vibrator ad and Minx has at least one advertiser on board, it will be interesting to see where we go next.

Stray Observations:

Episode title – Au revoir, le double dong is a remark that Joyce makes to Doug when he tells her that Mr. Ross is on board in having Beckley Cosmetics advertised in Minx.

-In the ‘Naughty Girl High’ centrefold photoshoot, the word detention is misspelled as ‘Detension’.

-Doug is now calling Joyce ‘Joycie’.

-Apparently, Bambi has a whole drawer full of vibrators.

-Apparently, Bambi can open beer bottles with her teeth and pick up tissues with her spit. Most of Bambi’s skills are tongue related as it was clipped when she was two years old.

-This episode is set in June 1972, the previous episode ended around Easter, so two months have passed.

-According to IMDB, Bambi performs the Heimlich manoeuvre a year (actually two years) before Dr. Heimlich developed it.

Best one liners and interactions:

• “Are you done?” “No, I’m never done you know that, but go ahead.” (Doug-Tina on his venting)
• “It’s a magazine with a penis.” “That sounds very nice.” (Shelly and an older, male tennis club member on Minx at the tennis club)
• “I don’t want to be mean Doug, but these make me hate myself and I love myself.” “These make me hate men and they kind of make me hate you.” “Oh yeah, for sure.” (Bambi-Tina-Bambi to Doug on the draft vibrator ads that the male advertising staff drew and pitched)
• “Oh my God, enough with the bunnies, okay? All they do is shit and fuck.” “So do we.” (Richie-Bambi when Bambi mentions that Beckley Cosmetics tests on bunnies)
• “Older or younger?” “Someone’s been brought up right.” (Doug-Shelly when they meet at the tennis club)
• “This place is not as nice as I thought it would be, the hedges need pruning.” “Oh, that’s ‘cause it’s June and the wrens are still nesting in them.” (Doug-Joyce on the tennis club)
• “I see you put your face on for me this evening.” “Oh, I just wore a little eyeliner, that’s all.” (Mr. Ross to Joyce, then Doug to Mr. Ross)
• “Your lives seem so fun, all I do with my mouth is yell.” (Shelly to Bambi, Tina and Richie)
• “I’m sorry kid, but this card is who these people really are.” (Doug to Joyce on Mr. Ross)