It’s just a few short weeks until  Mad Men returns (Sunday, April 7th!) and Ms. Jeannie cannot wait! The new season 6 poster was released just last week. In case you missed it, here it is…

Ms. Jeannie always anticipates these posters! It’s a little sneak-peak about what’s ahead in the coming months!  The new season 6 poster is quite different stylistically then the previous year’s posters…

As you can see from the Season 6 poster, along with the new season brings a whole new style and a break from the clean, crisp, clear, ultra mod photography that was Mad Men as we knew it.  Ms. Jeannie can only guess, based on the new poster, that this season will be edgier, more chaotic and less orderly than previous episodes. Oh the anticipation!

The artist behind this season’s poster is Brian Sanders, a UK illustrator that was specifically commissioned for this project due to work he did over 40 years ago. That’s a pretty powerful portfolio!

In the 1960’s Brian was working on projects like this…

That one looks sort of familiar, doesn’t it? You can definitely see the similarities of that image and the Season 6 poster right down to the police, the stop sign and the airplane in back. Even the colors are close.

This style of illustration was coined bubble and streak, which was mastered through the use of acrylic paints layered with opaque washes. Ulimately, this combination  achieved this sort of agitated textured look that boasts of energy and movement. Mad men’s creator, Matthew Weiner remembered this style of work the 60’s and wanted to imitate his style in the new season poster.  The marketing department for the show couldn’t quite capture what Weiner had in mind, so the creative team called in the expert. Who better to imitate the style then the actual artist?! And so Sanders was hired!

And we are left to speculate!

Mad Men Season 5 ends with the scene of Joan and Don in the bar. The year is 1967 and lots of questions go unanswered as the final scene plays out. Ms. Jeannie has her hunches. 1968 brings a turbulent time in American history.  Martin Luther King and Senator Robert Kennedy are assassinated,  birth control is banned by the Pope, Jackie Kennedy marries Aristotle Onassis, moon exploration booms with the launch of Apollo 7 and the orbit of Apollo 8, fear of the nuclear bomb  plants itself in American mindsets. Times are shifting in ways  that no one is prepared for and the nostalgic sense of traditional Americana begins to dim as political events heat up.

If we return to the poster with those circumstances in mind – the Ology household has come up with these possibilities for Season 6…

Mr. Jeannie Ology thinks that the police in the poster…

are there for Don in the form of an IRS scandal with his Dick Whitman persona.  Ms. Jeannie thinks that the police might involve some sort of DUI stop with Don or one of the other partners. Breathalyzers were just installed in all NY state trooper cars in 1968 , and we all know that the Mad Men gang were used to enjoying their libations and then getting in the car – so this might be an example of the changing times that the show is so good at subtly portraying (remember that garbage incident when Don and Betty and kids picnicked in the park?).

There is Don giving a passing glance to his old self, and the tight grasp of a female handhold…

which Ms. Jeannie thinks reconfirms his assurance in his new life with Megan. He no longer wants to rely on his old ways with all of his womanizing and manic episodes of not knowing who he truly is. In season 6, Ms. Jeannie thinks Don has finally figured himself out.

Ms. Jeannie also thinks that Joan will become a partner in company name also – a change from last year’s Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce to Sterling Cooper Draper Harris, now that Lane is no longer (sad, because Ms. Jeannie really liked his character!).  Mr. Jeannie Ology speculates that Roger Sterling is going to die of a heart attack, since his health has always been a simmering undercurrent in the storyline. And Ms. Jeannie thinks that Peggy will come back to the firm.

Whatever happens, Ms. Jeannie knows that it is going to be an interesting season! Do you have any speculations about the new season? What do you think about the new poster? Please post your comments below – it will be fun to hear everyone weigh in!!!