New Mad Men poster – What does it mean?

Yesterday, AMC released a new poster for the upcoming sixth season of Mad Men and it actually raises more questions rather than providing any real answers. This is unsurprising, as creator Matthew Weiner is notoriously secretive about information about the show and is adverse to any real information getting leaked before he is ready to reveal such information.  The poster was drawn by Brian Sanders, a famous illustrator that did the art work for many ads in the 1960s and 70s.

Let’s take a look

 

Some thoughts:

• The first thing that jumps out at me is the image of Don Draper passing himself on the street. This is probably a nod to the character’s secret identity, but what does this mean to the larger story in season six? Is Don’s past finally going to come to the surface? One man is in a dark suit and the other a lighter suit – could this represent Don’s struggle to be a good man and a faithful husband? One Don has a briefcase and the other doesn’t – tension between Don’s home life and work life?

• Speaking of which – whose hand is Don holding? Could be his wife Megan’s, but based on how season five ended that isn’t any guarantee. The flowery sheer sleeve would lead me to believe it is someone younger. Knowing Don, it really could be anyone and it doesn’t appear he has a wedding ring on his left hand. And if that is Joan’s hand he is holding, I’ll be over the moon.

• What’s up with all the police cars? That can’t be a good omen.

• The couple on the right side of the poster – to the left of the stop sign – kind of resembles Roger Sterling and Peggy. I’m not sure why they would be together, especially given Peggy’s decision at the end of last season.

• I have no idea if the lady in purple is supposed to represent anything and if so, what that is.

• I know I’m wrong, but every time I look at this poster, my first instinct is that the plane is flying upside down. It’s not, obviously, but I have to remind myself of that constantly. I guess I took the movie Flight to heart.

What I DO know looking at this poster is that it is going to be a long three weeks while I wait for new episodes to get some answers.

Have any theories about what this all means? Sound off in the comments below.