Start a Conversation

Talk is a public forum where you can ask questions and share your commentary with fellow Mad Men fans.

Sexual imagery in the rocket slide show presentation --it's "subliminal" effect on Don?

Don's creative mind makes him good at "underlying messages. He's also a "target" of many women with sex on their minds. Does anybody think the writers would devote some many precious minutes to this dry scene without it having a meaning beyond setting us up for the Cuban missle crisis? The engineers named the project "Multiple Independenty Targetable Re-entry Vichicle (MIRV)!!

They "...DEVELOPED A RESARTABLE ROCKET ENGINE." (Tell me Don wasnt in need of THAT in bed with Betty at the Hotel on Valentines Day)! The presenter went on to say the missle was capable of hitting 14 Individual Targets! (If one had the patience I'd love to know how many women over the two seasons we could count have made themselves potential sexual targets of Don (in bars, in the office, etc....count them if you like). But to my count, Don has only nailed 5 of them. (Slide show presenter said: "Even if Krushev hits 35%, that's 5 out of 14. And secondary strike capabilities will be extremely limited due to decrease in infrastruction and decreased population. Could Don be hearing the words "decrease in infrastruction" and fearing his own declining virility as middle age approaches, bringing with it the "decrease in population" of potential romantic partners? (Of course the slide presenter was talking of Russia's "decrease in population." Gee, the map of Russia in the slide show approximated the shape of a womb in one view! (Look again). Right after this slide show, Joy happens by, enticing Don to come away with her. How could he not?! He'd seen enough of slide shows --he didn't even have his clothes or other things, he was bored and saw limited opportunity at this conference...and "fate" or "serendipity" had once again stepped in (ie. Joy's coming out right at that moment) -- to offer Don a choice/chance to perhaps expand or change his life. BESIDES, I don't think the very clever, succintly written scripts of this show would have put all that excess verbiage with numbers, charts, etc. and devoted that much time to a "techinical" slide presentation without it having "double entendre" meaning! After all, slide presentations, suggestibility and subliminal messages have been a major part of the scenes we've seen "in the office" on MM!!

Comments

default userpic

In this scene I felt he was thinking of the brutal, visceral aspect of the war he had experienced in comparison to this "new" form of warfare making him aware of the "changes" in his life. "Since we're all going to die I think I will go to Palm Springs" may have been a part of his motivation.

default userpic

I agree with Ozone. I thought it was pretty clear that Don is and was suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from the carnage of the Korean war. Not to mention the guilt he felt over stealing the real Don Draper's identity to get out of it. Which lead him back to Anna.