--- title: Jon Hamm Just Predicted Don Draper's Future After the Mad Men Finale description: After AMC's hit show Mad Men took its final bow on Sunday, star Jon Hamm offered some clarity on the show's ambiguous ending. authors: - name: Susie Poppick url: https://money.com/author/susie-poppick/ at_money_since: 2013 articles: 117 covers: - Lifestyle - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Education - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Loans - Personal Finance - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://x.com/susiepoppick former_staff: true published: '2015-05-19T17:50:44.000Z' modified: '2015-05-19T17:50:44.000Z' section: Lifestyle tags: - Advertising - coca-cola - don draper - Jon Hamm - Mad Men - matt weiner - pubdesk word_count: 258 canonical: https://money.com/jon-hamm-don-draper-future-mad-men-finale/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Film Independent At LACMA Special Screening Of "Mad Men"](https://img.money.com/2015/05/473854090.jpg) *Actor Jon Hamm on May 17, 2015 in Los Angeles, California.* After AMC's hit show *Mad Men* took its final bow on Sunday, fans took to the Internet to debate the meaning of its ambiguous ending (caution: spoilers ahead). The final scene shows ad man Don Draper smiling blissfully at a spiritual retreat in California before cutting to the iconic Coca-Cola "Hilltop" ad from 1971. [Some commenters have argued](http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2015/may/18/mad-men-what-does-the-final-episode-scene-mean) that the ad signals Draper's escape from the clutches of Madison Avenue—and his role as a "Mad Man"—just as the ad world has begun using countercultural emblems to help sell its wares. Others have taken a more cynical view: that Draper [will mine the experience](http://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/the-original-resonant-existentially-brilliant-mad-men-finale) to create the iconic commercial. Turns out that actor Jon Hamm, who played Draper during the series' seven-season run, falls into the latter camp. "The next day, he wakes up in this beautiful place, and has this serene moment of understanding, and realizes who he is. And who he is, is an advertising man," Hamm told the *[New York Times](http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/05/18/mad-men-finale-jon-hamm-interview/?_r=1)*. "And so, this thing comes to him. There’s a way to see it in a completely cynical way, and say, 'Wow, that’s awful.' But I think that for Don, it represents some kind of understanding and comfort in this incredibly unquiet, uncomfortable life that he has led." Whether you think that's cynical or not, it certainly suggests that Hamm and show creator Matt Weiner took to heart [the Coke ad](https://youtu.be/1VM2eLhvsSM)'s multilayered message: "I’d like to teach the world to sing, in perfect harmony! 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