The incident was notable for water bombs thrown from the executive floor, which housed the Young & Rubicam advertising agency. The two water balloons struck 19-year-old James Hill, who slipped and fell on pavement, but was not seriously hurt. The other hit 9-year-old Mike Robinson. His mother, Mrs. Esme Robinson, along with other Black protesters and a New York Times reporter, came to the executive floor to complain. Mike Robinson, Esme Robinson, protester Vivian Harris, and Times reporter John Kifner were all portrayed in the opening scene. The dialogue in the scene was also taken directly from the original article. Vivian Harris originally said the, "And they call us savages" line, which television critic Mike Hale called "unfortunately hamhanded" and fellow critic Matt Zoller Seitz called "a terrible line" when they reviewed the premiere, apparently unaware that it was a real quote. On the day of the real event, Young & Rubicam office manager Frank Coppola apologized to the women for the incident, saying that "we have 1,600 people in this building and I can't control all of them. I've ordered all of the windows closed and I have men patrolling all the floors to make sure this doesn't happen again." Coppola's assurance that the windows were closed is similar to character Don Draper's idea of "Our windows don't open" in Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce's mocking want ad seen later in the episode.
