So I'm driving along Sunset Boulevard in L.A. recently and a large billboard catches my eye. It’s an ad for American Apparel (click to see photo), a clothing line for the hipster set whose ads have generally featured men and, more frequently,
women in suggestive poses covered by surprisingly little apparel for an apparel company ad.
But this one was different. The guy in this ad wasn't striking a sexy pose, and he was covered by quite a lot of clothing for today’s standards. He was wearing a big black hat, a black coat and long earlocks dangled at his temples. Not only that, the model wasn't an anonymous good-looker - it was none other than Woody Allen, dressed as a Chasid in one of the more famous stills from "Annie Hall." Over Woody's hat, in large white print, ran a line of Yiddish: "Der Hilliker rebbe," the Holy Rabbi. Near his beard: "American Apparel."
Now that's an interesting ad campaign. First, Woody isn't exactly at the height of his popularity. "Match Point" was good compared to some of its immediate predecessors – I actually walked out of "Melinda and Melinda," which for me was the equivalent of the Lubavitcher rebbe walking out on Kol Nidre – and for any other director might even have been considered very good. But not for Woody.
Not only that, who exactly was expected to see that ad and want to buy clothing from American Apparel? Chasidim? It's unlikely that many of them have seen "Annie Hall," and they couldn't admit it if they did. What connection were passers-by meant to draw between hip clothes and Woody in peyes? Do Jews represent a big enough market to target with such ad buys? I understand our significance as swing voters, and hence the desire by candidates to hawk their pro-Israel credentials to us. But are we also a swing clothing-buying demographic?
It seems that these ads – I'm aware of another placed on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, a hipster mecca – were directed in part at the same crowd that reads Heeb, a glossy magazine that targets young, culturally but not religiously minded Jews. But I think they were aimed elsewhere, too.
Recently I blogged about a story on msn.com about how to find a Jewish mate. Clearly the editors at MSN thought enough of their readers would be interested in such a piece, which means non-Jews are out there looking for Jewish mates. Something similar seems to be at work here. American culture has long been influenced by Jews in Hollywood but over the past several years, specifically Jewish items have found their way into the culture at large: from Yiddishisms on sitcoms, to Matisyahu, to presidential candidates touting their Jewish ancestors to Woody Allen in peyes on billboards.
Being Jewish has, improbably, become cool. This of course has come along with the general boom in promoting diversity and ethnic identity rather than the original melting-pot theory that was at play in the U.S. for many years. But it's notable that at least in the big cities, Jewish icons are thought now to be powerful marketing devices, even among non-Jews. What's next, "American Idol: The Cantors Edition?" (Also worth a read is Esther Kustanowitz's blog post about "Do Jews need a mascot to build buzz?")
