Description
Book SynopsisTrade Review"Steinberg explains in her informative
Jewish Mad Men, an anti-Semitic climate existed in the advertising business even into the early 1960s. Jewish 'Mad Men' wrestled their way into mainstream firms, too, and became influential in imagining and promoting the American Dream and the Jewish American version. Although there was plenty of anti-Semitism in the so-called 'white shoe' ad world, this book is about the complexity of being Jewish and American in a field whose ultimate goal is to influence Americans’ daily behavior. Steinberg effectively shows that when Jews became a consumer market, the advertising business realized it had to cater to them, forcing the creative demographic to change as well. Today’s Madison Avenue is a mixed marriage, so that national ads do not focus on too many ethnic or religious distinctions. While that’s great, it has rendered the brilliant, ethnically rooted ads, like Levy’s, harder if not impossible to find." -- Steven Heller * Haaretz *
"Even without the priming from popular culture, Steinberg's case for the importance of advertising as an indicator and shaper of the American Jewish experience is strong." * AJS Review *
"This book should appeal to readers interested in learning about advertising and Jewish life in the US." * CHOICE *
"Both provocative and entertaining,
Jewish Mad Men is an insightful look into advertising and American Jewish life." -- Carol Leifer * writer on Seinfeld, author of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Crying *
"You don't have to be Jewish to appreciate this richly detailed account of the marketing and advertising of Jewish life. Steinberg documents how religious, cultural, and communal concerns all take shape in conversation with the commercial marketplace." -- Ari Y. Kelman * author of Station Identification: A Cultural History of Yiddish Radio *
"How A Corporation Convinced American Jews To Reach For Crisco," interview with Kerri P. Steinberg * NPR's "Weekend Edition Sunday" *
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1 A Portrait of American Jewish Life
2 The Spaces and Places of Jewish Advertising: Joseph Jacobs and Market Segmentation
3 Manischewitz and Maxwell House: The M&M of Jewish Advertising
4 You Say You Want a Revolution: The Mainstreaming of Jewish Identity in American Advertising
5 Matchmaker, Matchmaker: JDating in the Digital Age
Conclusion: More than a Mirror
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Color plates between pages 00 and 00
