T. SHEA

Midwest Manners.
Thoughts on the Mad Men: Season 5 Poster. Matt Weiner & co. use a simple, stark and foreboding image to promote the fifth season following SCDP. A bit of a departure from previous season’s efforts (see here and here), this season’s poster uses less Don Draper but doesn’t skimp on the core existential conflict driving the series. The poster’s language echos the series opening sequence - a smart move to trigger familiar memories since the show has been off the air for 18 months. The line leads our eye down towards the premiere in familiar Mad Men coloring and font.  While I’m sure AMC would have preferred to keep Jon Hamm’s baby blues as the face of its Mad Men comeback, I admire the understated approach to hype. I’m ignoring my inner-cynic that says AMC designed the poster this way to save $100K on a day’s photoshoot. It’s all part of Matt Weiner’s masterplan, right? I see the negative space situating the man (read: Don Draper) in not only an existential free fall but in a wider environment, a broad and expansive cultural scope. Don Draper isn’t only fighting himself, he’s fighting the changing world around him. Whereas seasons three and four hint at the growing cultural murmur threatening the world Don Draper and Roger Sterling inhabit (i.e. rising water in season 3), season five poster alludes to a full on culture war.  Presumably taking place in 1966, I think we’ll see season 5 being the most “60’s-ish” of the Mad Men seasons. Hippies. Hash. LSD. Vietnam. Black Panther Party. This is what the popular opinion on the “60’s” might conjur up. But in many ways, the early Mad Men seasons reflect a carryover from the 1950s. The youth movement, feminism and the counterculture have been creeping in for three seasons now - season five will see the most direct conflict. Mad Men loves to place its characters in the every day arc of history and I can’t see Matt Weiner & co. NOT capitalizing on some of the monolithic events that occurred in 1966: First acid test in SF. (Don Draper tripping on Haight Ashbury? Yes pls.) Escalating conflict in Vietnam, explosion of anti-war protests. Miranda v. Arizona case Sniper shoots 13 from University of Texas belltower Star Trek premieres. NFL-AFL merge. “THAT’S WHAT THE MONEY’S FOR.”

Thoughts on the Mad Men: Season 5 Poster. Matt Weiner & co. use a simple, stark and foreboding image to promote the fifth season following SCDP.

A bit of a departure from previous season’s efforts (see here and here), this season’s poster uses less Don Draper but doesn’t skimp on the core existential conflict driving the series. The poster’s language echos the series opening sequence - a smart move to trigger familiar memories since the show has been off the air for 18 months. The line leads our eye down towards the premiere in familiar Mad Men coloring and font. 

While I’m sure AMC would have preferred to keep Jon Hamm’s baby blues as the face of its Mad Men comeback, I admire the understated approach to hype. I’m ignoring my inner-cynic that says AMC designed the poster this way to save $100K on a day’s photoshoot. It’s all part of Matt Weiner’s masterplan, right?

I see the negative space situating the man (read: Don Draper) in not only an existential free fall but in a wider environment, a broad and expansive cultural scope. Don Draper isn’t only fighting himself, he’s fighting the changing world around him. Whereas seasons three and four hint at the growing cultural murmur threatening the world Don Draper and Roger Sterling inhabit (i.e. rising water in season 3), season five poster alludes to a full on culture war. 

Presumably taking place in 1966, I think we’ll see season 5 being the most “60’s-ish” of the Mad Men seasons. Hippies. Hash. LSD. Vietnam. Black Panther Party. This is what the popular opinion on the “60’s” might conjur up. But in many ways, the early Mad Men seasons reflect a carryover from the 1950s. The youth movement, feminism and the counterculture have been creeping in for three seasons now - season five will see the most direct conflict. Mad Men loves to place its characters in the every day arc of history and I can’t see Matt Weiner & co. NOT capitalizing on some of the monolithic events that occurred in 1966:

  • First acid test in SF. (Don Draper tripping on Haight Ashbury? Yes pls.)
  • Escalating conflict in Vietnam, explosion of anti-war protests.
  • Miranda v. Arizona case
  • Sniper shoots 13 from University of Texas belltower
  • Star Trek premieres. NFL-AFL merge.

“THAT’S WHAT THE MONEY’S FOR.”

  1. tomshea posted this