Bartle Bogle Hegarty decided to take the success of the fifties and present the 501s with a series of advertisements set in 1950s America. They also decided to use fifties musical hits in the adverts and re – introduce those hits to the public. This was a dual – marketing process as whenever the adverts were shown on the TV, the public heard and thought of the music, and whenever the music was given radio airplay, the public thought of the 501 adverts.
The target audience for Bartle Bogle Hegarty’s advertisements was the youth of the eighties because the young people had more money than before and were willing to spend it on fashion. Also, Levi’s had lost a lot of their young audience due to the “my dad’s jeans” ethos.
Within the advertisements by Bartle Bogle Hegarty the roles of men and women are stereotyped in several ways. These include Levi’s Man being almost the ‘embodiment of cool’, the other men being conformist, old, boring or even all three. They also include; the girls all falling for Levi’s Man, including the old women who are then frowned upon by their husbands.
Because the advertisements were aimed at young people, they were mostly portrayed as being ‘cool’ and rebellious, whereas the older generation was portrayed as being boring and formal. This contrast was used to try and remove the impression that the 501s were “my dad’s jeans”.
In the eighties, America was still a ‘far away place’ that people wanted to visit because they had seen it in the movies, but often couldn’t. So by associating the 501s with America, Bartle Bogle Hegarty were able to attract peoples attention. They used images like; heat (to contrast the ‘cool’ 501s), American cars, cowboys (because they were originally created for cowboys and because westerns were a popular type of film at the time). They were also several other images that all counted towards the image of America.
The music in the advertisements was used to replace the need for dialogue. For each advertisement the music actually related to what was happening within the advertisement as well as the message at the end. For example; in ‘Launderette’, the music is Marvin Gaye’s “I Heard It Through The Grapevine.” which signifies that the actions of Levi’s Man (played in this advertisement by Nick Kamen) would have been talked about a lot. The reason that music was used instead of dialogue was because of the dual marketing campaign to re – release the vintage musical hits at the same time.
Levi’s try to create a “want to buy” ethos by using images of Levi’s Man’s intense pleasure at wearing the 501s to show how pleasurable the 501 can be. They also show the 501s being used in unusual and ‘wacky’ ways to show that a pair of jeans can be more than just boring clothes.
Close Analysis: - Launderette
A 50’s Cadillac drives passed a launderette in a ‘typical’ American street. There is a man in US Army uniform standing by the door. Nick Kamen arrives and walks in.
Nick Kamen enters the launderette and takes off his sunglasses. He walks passed the people sitting in the launderette: Two young women sitting together on chairs reading magazines. One wearing crazy, white framed '3D' glasses. Both are in long, flared skirts and wear their hair in high ponytails; a pair of brothers in red reversed baseball caps who are restless and inquisitive; their mother; A grumpy-looking man in a hat sitting just down from the two young women; and a women in spectacles sitting, reading next to him.
Nick Kamen selects a machine and pours in a bag – full of soap – powder nuggets. At the same time, the two brothers stare at him until their mother pulls them away. He then begins to undress.
He slowly takes off his t – shirt and his jeans and puts them in the wash. Confident in this performance, he casually takes up a seat amidst the gaping mouths, giggles and frowns of the other users of the launderette.
A final shot of Nick Kamen has him sitting down amongst the other launderette users. The caption, “Levi’s 501’s, The Original Shrink – to – Fit Jeans” appears.
The shot focuses of a pair of 501’s. The caption “Levi’s 501’s, Now Available Stone – Washed” is present. [See Fig. 1]
The first shot sets the scene as Nineteen Fifties America when young people had a lot of spare money to spend. In the scene there is a uniformed man who is supposed to denote the fact that most Americans were very conformist, as well as provide a contrast to the ‘rebellious’ Nick Kamen. Once he enters the launderette, the music (Marvin Gaye’s “I Heard it Through the Grapevine.”) starts to play, and removes his sunglasses to survey the scene. The sunglasses were there to promote Nick Kamen as being ‘cool’ and to emphasise the eye – contact made between him and the other people.
At first, no – one seems to notice him or know him, but then start to wonder where his ‘un - cool – but – necessary’ pile of clothes are. Then he selects a machine and pours in a bag full of soap – powder nuggets. He proceeds to remove his t – shirt revealing a well – toned muscular body, and places it in the machine. Then he removes his magazine, his comb and his sunglasses from his pocket. A lot of these images are shared with most of the other advertisements. These shared images include things like the comb, the sunglasses, the BryllCreamed hair, etc. Next he slides off his belt and slowly unbuttons his 501’s before taking them off and throwing them into the machine. Another shared image is the idea of the ecstasy of wearing the 501’s. Finally, he picks up his magazine and sits down between the two girls and the old man. The launderette scene then fades, to be replaced by the image of a pair of 501’s sporting the caption “Now available stonewashed” in the following format:
The shared images all seem to denote parts of the desirable stereotype of Levi’s Man. For example, the steam from the washing machines adds to the shared image of heat in the advertisements and is there to contrast from the ‘cool’ image of Levi’s Man. The tanned body shows that Levi’s Man is fit and is likely to get the girl. It also contrasts the old, conformist, and conventional people in the advertisements. Other contrasts are the white boxers being plain and boring, contrast the 501’s which are denoted and being fun and ‘colourful’ in comparison.
After the first year of the campaign, sales of 501’s were up by 800% compared with the year before. The sales of white boxer shorts rose by a similar amount at the same time, due to the fact of Levi’s Man nearly always wearing white boxer shorts. The sales of other items featured in the advertisements, BryllCream or sunglasses for example also rose. From this information, I think that the advertising campaign was a success for Bartle Bogle Hegarty and for Levi’s.
