In The Blogs

LA's Retailers Get Religion

| Fri Jun. 5, 2009 5:00 PM PDT

— --by flickr user portobellospy via creative commons

Woody Allen's lawsuit against American Apparel figurehead Dov Charney may have settled for a cool $5 million last month, but Charney is far from the only LA-based retailer proselytizing to the masses. Allen's bizarre episode with Charney left us with more questions than answers. Not the least of which is: what does דער הייליכער רבי actually mean?

According to my Yiddish-speaking friend Menachem Yankl, the phrase printed on the billboard of Mr. Allen (see left) is actually a reference to the late Menachem Mendel Schneerson, erstwhile leader of the ultra-Orthodox Chabad-Lubavitch movement. For those of you who don't live in Brooklyn, Schneerson's likeness is plastered across buildings and hung over baby carriages from Crown Heights to Jerusalem and his millions of followers believe he's the messiah. Charney explains:

"Along the top of the billboard were the words "Der Haileker Rebbe," written in Hebrew letters. This is Yiddish for "the highest level, extra-holy Rabbi," of which there is only one in the worldwide Hasidic Jewish Lubavitcher community."

Huh? Is Charney some kind of closet Hasid? Is American Apparel planning a new line of frumi ankle-length black skirts to go with that Too-Short Metallic Micro-Mini? Maybe the Tel Aviv store has the inside skinny.

At Forever 21, Jesus Hearts You Too:
Chatting with the Changs, the super-private, devoutly Christian, South Korean couple behind discount clothier and mega-mall staple Forever 21 (headquartered in LA's Garment District) is so tricky that not even the New York Times can do it. Fortunately, you don't have to look far to find out exactly how the Changs feel about Christ: Printed on the bottom of every neon-yellow shopping bag is John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." Gee, thanks. Can I have my $2 tank-top now? Honestly, if they loved the world, they'd use biodegradable bags.

In-N-Out Burger—Serving Christ (With That) for 60 years:
John 3:16 also appears prominently at the popular West Coast hamburger chain In-N-Out Burger, whose diner-style decor and Animal-Style fries have delighted generations of high school students since it first opened east of downtown LA in 1948. The verse is printed along the bottom of your Coke—but the Bible references don't end there.

Milkshakes feature Proverbs 3:5 and Double-Doubles (two patties with two slices of cheese) are swaddled in Nahum 1:7. Perhaps oddest of all, all your hamburgers and cheeseburgers reference Revelation 3:20, which reads: "Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me."

Hungry for more? Although LA is ahead of the pack, the home of sun, smog, and religious zealotry isn't the only place where faith and fast-food cross paths. We've also heard tell of Bible versus on Alaska Airlines dinner trays, VeggieTale Happy Meals at Georgia-based Chick-fil-A, and Christian coffee cups at New England donut purveyor Bess Eaton. Know any more retailers with a small-script faith agenda? Tell us about it in the comments.

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Comments

great

Submitted by Elaine Meyer (not verified) on Sat Jun. 6, 2009 11:04 AM PDT.

Nice first post. Chick Fil A is big out in D.C. and down south, I hear. They supposedly have great chicken sandwiches, so their devotion to the father is paying off.

"One Truth, Many Paths."

Submitted by car (not verified) on Sat Jun. 6, 2009 11:42 AM PDT.

"One Truth, Many Paths." Saying nice "religious" things on a bag (though you have an AWESOME point about biodegradable bags), or being proud of your religion is okay, as long as it's not pushed on everybody where you have to be wearing a cross to get into the place. Otherwise, the basic premise behind every religion is the same, and as long as Pat Robertson or equally-corrupt people twist it up, they all intend very nice sentiments, which we can all use.

Chick-Fil-A is a great christian organization

Submitted by Godless Heathen on Sat Jun. 6, 2009 12:25 PM PDT.

Did I really just type those three words in a row??

Seriously though, Chick-Fil-A pays extra money to mall landlords to close on Sundays. They give scholarships to employees, encourage honesty amongst managers,and have exceptional standards of cleanliness. I worked in two different locations over the course of a year and only ended up quitting because Pacific Sunwear was higher up the mall employee pecking order.

Another plus is that their kids toy is almost always either a book or an educational toy. Yeah, sometimes the book was a bible story book, but if I had a kid, I would prefer it reading fairy tales over sucking on some chinese plastic choking hazard from BK.

Isn't it great to see such

Submitted by another heathen (not verified) on Mon Jun. 8, 2009 12:30 PM PDT.

Isn't it great to see such noble charity from fast food companies that are responsible for some of the worst environmental degradation and appalling brutality on earth? The poultry industry is one of the most destructive and abusive of all, and YOUR money is subsidizing it (and your tax dollars, too, but that's another story).

Tell the millions of animals who live and die in utter misery how great Chick-Fil-A is. Tell that to the millions of people and habitats affected by the environmental damage caused by mass poultry production. Tell that to the people who have to live around it or who get sick from it. What is Chick-Fil-A doing for them?

And maybe, someday remind yourself that massive poultry production involves the abuse of antibiotics that are beginning to lose effectiveness (not to mention hormones used solely as growth promoters). Next time you get a serious antibiotic-resistant infection, thank the poultry producers. Or maybe you'll get lucky and just contract a zoonotic disease such as the many types of bird flu that very likely arose in these unbelievably destructive, sickeningly cruel poultry operations.

Christ 4 Sale

Submitted by Lance Watkins (not verified) on Mon Jun. 8, 2009 1:01 PM PDT.

It's always refreshing to hear stories of how American businesses embrace Judeo Christian virtues.

The America I live in is one where corporations worship at the Temple of Profit.
Any business can use seemingly pleasant phrasing, however, because those phrases rarely parallel actions, this phrasing - aka spin - is bizarre more often than not and resembles plagiarism as opposed to piety.

W is perhaps the best example of this.