Fair Lawn, NJ – A YouTube clip released three weeks ago by Kraft Foods in order to market a new gum features an eclectic group of New Yorkers dancing on the subway, among them a chasidic man.
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The thirty one second clip which has received close to 10,000 hits, depicts a diverse group of people, including a Chinese woman, an African-American man with dreadlocks, a woman in a business suit, a long haired young man sporting headphones, and a chasidic man dressed in a long coat with a black hat and a long grey beard, spontaneously bursting out into song and dance, after one of the passengers on the train tastes the product, Trident Layers gum.
A spokesperson for Trident gum says that they have no knowledge of the religious affiliations of the actor dressed in Chasidic garb.
“Our intent in creating the spot was to show a diverse cross-section of people that you might run into on the New York City subway,” Melissa Batchilder, manager of corporate affairs at Kraft Foods told VIN News. “An actor came to our casting sessions in Chasidic dress and that’s what he also wore for the spot. We are not aware of his religious background, and as a course of process, it’s not a question we would ask.”
Trident Layers is not a kosher certified product.
This gum contains gelatin so even those who chew gum without kosher certification, myself included, would tend not to chew this gum. If anyone is naive enough to think a “jew” depicted in an ad gives it certification than I have a bridge to sell you
I thought its kosher, I feel like a goy now
I don’t think that Trident is Kosher.
That hassidic guy looks like the real deal. You can tell a real yid when you see one.
I’ve seen goyim do a better impersonation of a chassid. The ad agency was doing what most do and not “screening” applicants for their real-life affiliations. The ad is harmless, does not suggest endorsement by an rav or chassideshe mosdos, etc. Let it be and not get your knee socks in a knot (I forget the yiddesh term).
Does this mean we can expect frivolous lawsuits from individuals or an organization claiming a misleading commercial is making holy Jews chew on unholy gum?
This reminds me of a story that circulated many years ago. Some movie was being filmed in NY. An extra was dressed Chassidish. On lunch break, he headed for the nearest traif hot dog vendor. A passing yid, thinking he was saving a fellow yid from making a terrible mistake, knocked the hot dog out of his hand with a flying tackle as he was about to take his first bite. The actor, as you may have guessed, was a goy, and he was not happy.
As a real-life Chassidic actor I always turn down anything that could possibly be an endorsement for a product that is not kosher. I’ve given up many commercial offers and/or Film/TV spots that would have me as a customer in a non-kosher restaurant. I do not recognize the actor in this commercial, so I am going to assume it was not done in NYC, but in LA.
In the 8+ years that I have been involved in acting/casting of Hasidim in NYC I have had the good fortune, B”H, to be able to change how the industry views religious Jews. But it IS an ongoing struggle.
-elli-
You tube shmu tube
This is a Television commercial! ! It aired about 2the weeks ago.
Oh come on people. He is CLEARLY an actor.
Some reputable rabbonim have allowed chewing gum that has a non-digestable gelatin base. You are not eating the gelatin. And If it is accidentally swallowed, it is not derech achila anyhow.
None of the Trident gums are kosher although they were looking into it around 2000. They did a run under a reliable hashgocha and I was BH zoche to get a pack of the kosher gum about 2 years post production. The gum was still soft, quite tasty, and it held that taste for many hours. The Jew brands don’t come anywhere close – not even fresh off the production lines!
Gum zu l’tova
He looks like the guo on KIMMEL
he is the real-deal and i know in the past he has spoken to rabbanim about what he can and can not do in regards to his acting career.
Anyway all the holy people out there should not even know this commercial exist because they shouldn’t be watching television
All of you sound like a buncha horses ptoots. The guy in the commercial is an orthodox Jew. He is one of the nicest sweetest Jews I know and his avodah to G is beautiful. Oh and he is a Lubavitcher, yeah a Lubavitcher; because Lubavitchers possess the ability to balance religion in our modern day society. Yee Haw!!!!!
This reminds me of the “yes HDTV commercial” full of frum Jews. You can see it on Youtube.
GELATIN IS NOT TREIF!!!!!!
What’s wrong with everyone?!?!
All of a sudden, everyone stops poskining like the rov poskim in the world and poskins like Rabbi JB Soloveichik????