Men’s Wearhouse needs a new Jew.
Most of you have probably heard about the Men’s Wearhouse cashiering of George Zimmer, the company founder and reassuring front-man who has been pitching their suits on TV for decades with his classic “You’re gonna like the way you look..I guarantee it” byline.
I haven’t been following the controversy so won’t make any ignorant remarks about the board’s possibly reasonable decision to fire him. I am having a bit of communication problem with my own boss right now however, which might be detailed in my upcoming Spearhead essay You Just Got Canned. For that reason I am trimming my nostril hairs and cleaning up my gabardines a bit in anticipation of upcoming sales contacts, as described in Employment Game. So consideration of suit particulars is currently competing with other memes in my short-attention span brain.
ForeignBride has cable TV and I am often subjected to its proto-feminist outrages. I could not help but notice Men’s Wearhouse latest ad campaign, minus George :
Where’s George? I don’t like it. I don’t like it at all.
While the sight of shirtless muscle-boys may intrigue some women, as implied in the ad, it doesn’t compel a man to consider getting a suit at Men’s Wearhouse. Granted, they are trying to appeal to a younger demographic, but the message implies a loss of tradition and craft in lieu of pushing cheap, generic suits to impersonal corporate drones. The point of getting a tailored suit is to make you look great despite your imperfections. None of the buff diversity fellows in the above photo inspire me to drop by Men’s Wearhouse over other multi-product mall stores, where the ladies’ sections are glittering mazes of shiny counters and labyrinthine portals and the men’s sections are mercifully simple in layout and close to the store exit. Men’s Wearhouse’s exclusive focus on men’s attire was a good draw in that regard.
With the old George Zimmer ads, you knew that when you walked into Men’s Wearhouse George would be there knowing his profession and putting you in a good-looking suit. He might have been a little pushy, mind you, but that was part of the shtick and you were willing to go along with it to wear your new threads with aplomb.
Because George Zimmer represented something else that still means something to a lot of men: legacy and passion for his chosen business.
George Zimmer could not remain as commercial spokesman forever, but he definitely could have given us another decade of his smooth intonation about proper attire for men. The bottom line is that Men’s Wearhouse needs to hire a credible Jewish front-man to pitch their wares. They need to do a talent search and find a man who looks like George Zimmer’s son and talks like he has been in the business living and breathing fine suits his whole life, with the craftsmen and connections to make you look like a pro. Tradition, craft, and legacy still have a place in this world and are still valued by many men seeking top quality products in a feminized marketplace.
