The One-Percent-targeting fashion brand Prada likes to cloak its brand in an air of mystery. The latest Prada commercials — which Prada, like other big luxury brands, characterizes as short films rather than ads — revels in the unknown. As Prada explains, the film shorts are “enigmatic, a source of fascination, like a tantalizing fragment of a larger whole.” Prada is one of the world’s most exclusive and expensive brands — with even a backpack like the one below priced at $1100.
Each Prada short film, according the the company, is an “examination of the duality central to Prada.” Part of the mystery and “duality” of the Prada short film Double Exposure, directed by Willy Vanderperre, is the choice of an unmistakable Jared Kushner doppelganger as the silent protagonist. (See video below.)
The real Jared Kushner is, of course, President Trump‘s son-in-law — husband to first daughter Ivanka and top adviser to the president of the United States.
The actor/model in the Prada film is styled to look so much like Kushner, albeit a younger version of Kushner, that it’s hard to believe it’s an accident — especially for a brand so consistently purposeful and sure-handed in its messaging. (When you sell backpacks for $1100 and purses for $2000, you’re selling more than just design.)
The Prada brand presents the Kushner lookalike as part of its mystery. Below is the short film and a look at the Kushner lookalike from the advertisements for the Prada Spring/Summer 2019 men’s collection. Furthering the intrigue, Kushner is — like the enigmatic actor in the film — also silent on matters that many people would like to know about. The Prada character, btw, seems to be a thief. What does it all mean, Prada?
Kushner lookalike ad:
Prada ad Jared Kushner mashup:
Prada ad:
