In a new series of commercials for Tornado air conditioners, the ultra-Orthodox public comes out of the shtetl.
I saw cool Haredim
The Adler Chomsky Warshavsky advertising firm chose eight groups of typical Israelis, including pilots, blondes, soccer players and burglars, all declaring how pleased they are with the company's air conditioners. One of the eight groups, surprisingly, is a group of ultra-Orthodox men. Unlike the McCann-Erickson Advertising commercial for Yes satellite television, which shows Ultra-Orthodox men protesting abomination, in the Tornado commercial they are part of Israeli society and, who would ever think it, are even cool.
"Customers really are willing to accept the ultra-Orthodox public, and the ultra-Orthodox [in the commercial] are shown in a positive light and become cool and trendy, part of the Israeli melting pot," says a source at Trio, an Adler subsidiary that provides advertising consulting services for the ultra-Orthodox, Russian and Arab sectors. "There is no problem with presenting ultra-Orthodox in commercials. It is even intriguing. Ultra-Orthodox men are nice to watch, because they are meticulously dressed and no less interesting to look at than a teenager with gel in his hair."
As always, the United States is not far behind Israel. Another up-and-coming ultra-Orthodox icon, reggae singer Matisyahu, stars this month in a commercial for Kenneth Cole fashions in Esquire, the men's fashion magazine. The American Jewish magazine The Forward called Matisyahu one of the five most influential Jews in the U.S. In 2006 he performed the warm-up for Sting's concert in Israel.