Peggy Olson is one of the most important characters in Mad Men. From the first episode, the audience follows her journey from being the shy and timid new girl to one of the most confident and highly skilled characters on the entire show.
Her storyline is a fascinating one that highlights women’s empowerment as she grows throughout and doesn’t take no for an answer. She has major success within her career, although it doesn’t come without some bumps in the road, both professionally and romantically.
While she is one of the nicest characters on the show, for the most part, that doesn’t mean there aren’t moments where she makes mistakes or is incredibly nasty. Here are Peggy’s 10 most shameful moments.
Not Trusting Dawn
Mad Men tackles the issue of racism at the time head-on and doesn’t shy away from the fact that African Americans had to work hard to earn the respect of many. Peggy Olson is someone who seems to not have narrow-minded views in that respect, which is clear when she takes Dawn in to stay at her apartment after finding her sleeping in Don’s office.
However, while she does treat Dawn with respect, she has one moment where a slight tinge of racism and a lack of trust shines through. Dawn is getting ready to sleep on the couch when Peggy sees her purse is on the table, they make eye contact and Peggy pretends she is just looking at the bottles of beer that need tidying, but that isn’t the truth.
Getting Involved With Duck
Peggy Olson doesn’t have a good time with love during the show (as this list will highlight), but at the same time, she doesn’t really help herself with some of the decisions she makes. A prime example of that is when she gets involved with Duck Phillips, whose life has totally collapsed at the point when they start hooking up.
It’s quite clear that Duck is an alcoholic who is mainly just using Peggy for leverage in the hope he will either get to return to work or to bring her along with him as a bargaining chip to get work elsewhere. She shamefully goes along with it for a while, knowing fully that it’s the wrong thing to be doing.
Choosing Annie
The first account that Peggy Olson is given when she becomes a copywriter is for the Relax-a-Cizor. She works alongside Ken Cosgrove and they have to hire someone for a voiceover role which is where Peggy makes a shameless decision.
It comes down to two women, one is Rita who has tons of confidence but isn’t the prettiest, while the other is Annie who has the looks but not the talent. However, she makes the decision to hire Annie, simply because she thinks that having looks is the right decision, which is a shallow choice.
Spilling The Beans
When Peggy makes the decision to leave SCDP to join the rival agency, CGC fans wondered what sort of role she was going to play. However, nobody expected this. Peggy and Stan had nightly phone calls to stay in contact, sharing funny stories about work, which included him letting slip to Peggy that they had a meeting coming up with Heinz Ketchup.
He does that in trust and confidence, yet Peggy immediately betrays him and tells Ted what is happening. While she doesn’t think much of it, when he says they have to pitch as well and she does a better job than Stan and Don, it quickly becomes clear she stabbed her friend in the back.
Heinz Mess
Speaking of Heinz, despite the fact that she nails the ketchup meeting, her previous encounter with the company doesn’t exactly go well. While working for Don, she tries to land their account for Heinz Beans, but her approach is a little off.
Creative pitches not going to plan is something that is fairly regular in her line of work. But for some reason, Peggy takes this one incredibly personally and actually snaps at the client. She lets loose and tells them it’s the best work they’re ever going to get in what is an unprofessional moment for her.
Trying To Flirt With Don
This moment takes place right at the start of Mad Men when Peggy Olson is trying to find her feet within this new world. She works outside Don Draper’s office as his receptionist and she hears plenty of stories about how to impress him and get on his good side.
Immediately she believes that in order to impress him she needs to sleep with Don. She heads into his office and tries to flirt, putting her hand on his, which quickly gets rejected. It’s not a great look for Peggy and proves that she has a shallow mindset of Don straight away, before even getting to know him.
A Bad Drunk
Megan Draper throwing Don a surprise birthday party was always going to be a decision that backfired. However, most fans (rightly) expected it would be Don who lost his cool and while that does happen, he isn’t the only one. That’s because Peggy Olson happens to have one too many drinks on the night.
She gets incredibly drunk and goes off on a crazy rant to both Don and Megan, in their own house about the amount of work she has to do in comparison to them. She lets loose with her true feelings and doesn’t hold anything back, which is a moment she instantly regrets.
Sleeping With Pete Campbell
One of the worst decisions that Peggy Olson makes during the show takes place early on when she starts having an affair with Pete Campbell. She is new to the office and falls into the same trap that many other females do, choosing Pete as her man, as he is also out to prove he is similar to the other men in the office.
However, this isn’t really in Peggy’s character as even though she is attracted to Pete, he is in a loving relationship. That’s what makes this relationship shameful as she is well aware of the fact he is committed to another woman.
An Affair With Ted
You would have thought that Peggy Olson might have learned her lesson from having an affair with Pete Campbell, but sadly that isn’t the case. Later on in the show, she falls into the same trap, falling for Ted who is her boss. While he treats her well, and clearly feels something towards her, he is still married.
Sleeping with your boss is always a risky decision and one that shouldn’t happen, but doing so when he is married only makes things worse. Considering how Peggy is often burnt by love and romance, the fact she willingly gets involved this way is shameless.
She Blames Joan For Their Harassment
Even though they are very different types of people, Peggy and Joan always respect each other, even if they don’t agree. Peggy looks up to Joan in a lot of ways, which is why her actions in season seven towards her are so incredibly shocking and shameful.
They go through a tough ordeal together during a business meeting where the pair of them are sexually harassed, which nobody should have to deal with. But instead of comforting each other, Peggy just slut-shames Joan and blames her for the entire situation due to the way she dresses, despite Joan also being a victim.
