For J.Crew to pull off its brand revival, it needs to attract new, younger customers.

Why, then, did the retailer cast 45-year-old “Yellowjackets” star Melanie Lynskey, 61-year-old actress Julianne Moore and 76-year-old Diane Keaton, the patron saint of the coastal grandma aesthetic, in its latest celebrity campaign?

“The core idea of this campaign is this lens of heritage made modern,” said Derek Yarbrough, J.Crew’s chief marketing officer. “We said, ‘Okay, let’s extend the campaign with a social-first push using these iconic women who represent a classic remix.’”

The hope was not to appeal to a wider age demographic, Yarbrough said, but rather that these women would resonate across age groups because they embodied the idea of being “classic but in this fresh and modern way.” The campaign is also a sign to customers that J.Crew is bringing back the classics that made it a success in the 1990s and aughts: oxford shirts, knit pullovers and classic trousers.

J.Crew is hardly the first brand to tap ambassadors across age groups over the years. Coach’s ambassador roster stretches from 23-year-old Lil Nas X to 53-year-old Jennifer Lopez. Farfetch tapped 66-year-old “Sex and the City” star Kim Cattrall for a campaign earlier this year. In 2017, Covergirl signed the then 69-year-old Maye Musk (mother of Elon) as a face of the brand, while Celine put the late writer Joan Didion, then 81, in an ad in 2015. Even J.Crew has employed the tactic in the past:…