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It is easy to dismiss advertising as simply the background chatter of modern life, often annoying, sometimes hilarious, and ultimately meaningless. But Kerri P. Steinberg argues that a careful study of the history of advertising can reveal a wealth of insight into a culture. InJewish Mad Men, Steinberg looks specifically at how advertising helped shape the evolution of American Jewish life and culture over the past one hundred years. Drawing on case studies of famous advertising campaigns-from Levy's Rye Bread (\"You don't have to be Jewish to love Levy's\") to Hebrew National hot dogs (\"We answer to a higher authority\")-Steinberg examines advertisements from the late nineteenth-century in New York, the center of advertising in the United States, to trace changes in Jewish life there and across the entire country. She looks at ads aimed at the immigrant population, at suburbanites in midcentury, and at hipster and post-denominational Jews today. In addition to discussing campaigns for everything from Manischewitz wine to matzoh,Jewish Mad Menalso portrays the legendary Jewish figures in advertising-like Albert Lasker and Bill Bernbach-and lesser known \"Mad Men\" like Joseph Jacobs, whose pioneering agency created the brilliantly successful Maxwell House Coffee Haggadah. Throughout, Steinberg uses the lens of advertising to illuminate the Jewish trajectory from outsider to insider, and the related arc of immigration, acculturation, upward mobility, and suburbanization. Anchored in the illustrations, photographs, jingles, and taglines of advertising,Jewish Mad Menfeatures a dozen color advertisements and many black-and-white images. Lively and insightful, this book offers a unique look at both advertising and Jewish life in the United States.

Meandering through Times Square in New York several years ago, I was struck by a large illuminated billboard featuring Stephanie and Avi—a stunning couple—whose chance encounter was facilitated by the Jewish Internet dating service known as “JDate®” (see plate 12). That JDate could sponsor a substantial ad in such prime real estate certainly speaks to the achievements of the company founded in 1997. Yet beyond the success of this online dating service, the advertisement makes an implicit statement about the successful integration and comfort level of Jews in contemporary American society, for in this ad, Stephanie and Avi

In 1965, Americans witnessed the assassination of Malcolm X, the Watts Riots in Los Angeles, an escalation in America’s involvement in Vietnam, and the passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act. Like Bob Dylan sang, the times they were a-changin’ and this was reflected in advertising. Advertising was shifting from text to image, from the literal to the conceptual, and from the descriptive to the suggestive, in deference to a creative revolution, social and political uprisings, and an emerging youth culture. As individuality and dissidence quashed conformity and images of difference trumped postwar representations of wholesome all-Americans in advertising, Hebrew

In 2006, Reboot, a movement of young Jewish creatives dedicated to the renewal of Jewish values and traditions, published a groundbreaking study detailing what being Jewish means to Generation Y (young adults between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five). One-on-one interviews with a cross-section of individuals together with Generation Y focus groups from Los Angeles, Atlanta, and New York highlighted that, unlike earlier generations, this cohort did not connect to Judaism through established institutions. In fact, when asked to identify what the acronyms of some of the more popular organizations like AIPAC stood for, many were unable to do so.¹

Why have more Jewish headaches been cured by Bayer aspirin? Why do dogs owned by Jews prefer Gaines Burger?¹ It is because Joseph Jacobs has told us so. Since 1919, the Joseph Jacobs Organization has played matchmaker, pairing mainstream companies with the Jewish market. For ninety-five years this agency has steadily guided ordinary household products into Jewish homes. Its list of achievements include: the implementation of market segmentation to the Jewish community; being the first Jewish advertising agency to contract with major U.S. manufacturers; creation of the “K” symbol to designate kosher certification; creation of the “OU” symbol to designate

In 1775, the artist Gilbert Stuart, who would later become the leading portraitist of the federal period, depicted Sarah Rivera Lopez and Joshua, the wife and son of Aaron Lopez, a wealthy Jewish merchant. Decades later, Stuart gained acclaim for painting distinguished political figures, including presidents George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe. However, he was only twenty years old at the time of the Sarah Rivera Lopez and son portrait, and his painting therefore lacks the nuance and polish of his later works. Even if Stuart captured the likeness of their facial features and expressions,

WhenToo Jewish? Challenging Traditional Identitiesopened at the Jewish Museum in New York in 1996, an assortment of artworks exemplifying Jewish life were put on display. Deborah Kass’sFour Barbras(also known as the Jewish Jackie Series depicting Andy Warhol–style silkscreened representations of singing diva Barbra Streisand) and Rhonda Lieberman’sBarbara Bush(featuring a white flocked “Hanukkah Bush” adorned with Barbara Bush ornaments) cleverly highlighted the coalescence of Jewish and American culture, and the fusion of Jewish references with non-Jewish icons. However, it was Adam Rolston’s larger-than-life, six-by-six-foot canvas of a Manischewitz matzo box aptly titledManischewitz American

In 1967, El Al airlines stunned viewers with its disarming advertisement featuring an attractive flight attendant. The headline announced, “Maybe You Don’t Want to Look at a Painted-on Smile All the Way to Europe” (see figure 1). A heavy black line delineated the woman’s lips, extended across her face, and concluded in short, upright curved strokes that framed her cheeks and likened her to a clown. Cleverly alluding to the body and wingspan of an airplane seen head-on, the ad was playful, yet also sober. Pronounced rounded contours seen in the sweep of the attendant’s cap on the left side