The Big Question Jason Alexander's Super Bowl Commercial Left Viewers With
"Hey, that's my face! You can't just wear my face!"
Those words come at the end of a recent, gone-viral Super Bowl LV commercial featuring the face of one of the 1990s' premier comedic sidekicks: Jason Alexander, who played George Constanza on Seinfeld. Or more accurately, the commercial features his many faces, from indignant to horrified, befuddled to disdaining, nauseated to enraged, all of them arrayed on a teenager's hoodie silently protesting its poor treatment. And in this case, Jason Alexander has a good reason to complain, because, well... he's dirty and requires apologizing.
Watchable on YouTube, the commercial — for laundry detergent Tide — features a mother with a laundry basket asking her son to clean his Jason Alexander hoodie (emblazoned with Alexander's giant, then-smiling face). The son replies, "It looks clean to me," and cue the montage of ignominy set to '90s-like sitcom music: Jason Alexander hoodie being drooled on by a dog, sat on, run on, used to clean a phone, strewn on the floor and victimized by... let's call it falling meat? And of course, being ground into the floor while its wearer does the worm. At each new instance of dirty disgrace, the face on the hoodie changes and treats us to a fresh Alexander expression of disgust.
While this commercial may prompt some younger viewers to say, "Um... who's that guy?" it left others with the more eternal, poignant question: "How can I get me one of them hoodies??"
You can't buy a Jason Alexander hoodie, but you can win one
If you're one of Jason Alexander's hoodies' would-be owners, we have bad news and good news. Despite the brilliance of the commercial, it seems there are no current plans to utilize Jason Alexander's face for mass-produced, retail-buyable sportswear, as Promo Marketing Magazine tells us. We know, we know: sad faces all around (including Jason Alexander's). Of course, people would buy it, right? The merchandising potential is off the charts for this thing. Imagine entire lineups of differently faced Jason Alexander hoodies, dozens upon dozens of expressions sold in stores and then re-sold in collector's bundles on eBay for extortionary prices.
And that brings us to the good news: Tide is going to manufacture some hoodies, as Jason Alexander himself tweeted. Hurrah! And judging by the majority of the replies on the thread, folks are more than happy about this. The hoodies aren't going to be sold, though. They're going to given away in limited quantity, raffle style, to a lucky few who donate to Feeding America and Matthew 25: Ministries, two U.S.-based charities that focus on providing food to the homeless and supporting the poor, particularly victims of disasters. But as the donation website tells us, you've only got until Wednesday, February 10,11:59 p.m. to enter for a chance to win.
So go ahead and give a little bit. It might even make Jason Alexander (and his hoodie) smile.