Products and Services Vol. 3 : The Michael Cera Sweatshirt - Into the Fire

Iconography is physical, it has a taste, a smell, and a feeling that accompanies its identification as something cherished, special and symbolic. What does it take to get a soldier to carry a flag into battle? What kind of iconographic meaning is powerful enough for someone to march straight into the fire, and die for the cause? Who the hell knows.

Pop culture is rife with symbolic meaning, suggestion and nuanced iconic value. Marketers manipulate symbolic meaning to create brand loyalty. I know quite a few chubby dudes who crave the motion and action found in the Nike Swoosh, but feel uncomfortable with the actual physicality found in motion and action. I’d also bet dollars to donuts that most of the office working, Burberry coated Starbucks drinkers have little or no interest in Starbuck, Ahab, or that overweight wale. Very rarely in pop culture does something scream, beacon like, through the pitch black nothingness that is the modern age. It takes a special icon to capture the spirit of the times, and the tempo of a generation. For these times, that beacon is the Michael Cera hooded sweatshirt.

Tight, like the times, dirty, like the hearts of the American people, the Michael Cera hoodie is an icon for the ages. Mr. Cera has given us this gift in every movie he has ever appeared in. He, messenger like, is trying to force this icon into our collective unconscious. Whether drunkenly singing an ironic song in the smash hit Superbad, or chasing an awkwardly charming, bosomy, indie rocker in Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, the hooded sweatshirt remains the same. It would be far too simplistic to suggest that its repetition is merely a stylistic wink of the eye, or a simple wardrobe oversight. The Michael Cera sweatshirt is a catch all for teen angst, security, mystery, and youthful stumblebumming. Watch Cera use his sweatshirt to act shy, coy, or sad. Watch him slovenly flop his hands into those pockets, pull at the zipper, and inside joke his way into a sexless makeout.

The Michael Cera sweatshirt is beer mouthed kisses at 3am. The Michael Cera sweatshirt is whisky dick, half high, whole hearted puppy love. The Cera sweatshirt is burnt with cigarettes and covered in Coca-Cola classic. It’s being 23. If clothing had genitals, the Michael Cera sweatshirt would not be able to perform. It’s a battle flag, it’s a memory, and even more than Starbuck, or the Swoosh, it won’t freaking leave us alone.