Describe the techniques used by Bartle, Bogle and Hegarty to advertise Levi's.

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Describe the techniques used by Bartle, Bogle and Hegarty to advertise Levi’s

From the mid 1950’s onwards, jeans have been especially associated with particular types of male American youth heroes, including James Dean, the young Marlon Brando, and their sixties followers – heroes who have become symbols of the youth and rebellion in almost all Western cultures.

Before World War Two jeans were worn as men’s work wear, so that workers had something comfortable to wear but after World War Two, the jeans became very popular with the war heroes who were returning from fighting.

Through the 1960’s and 1970’s, ever since the exportation of jeans from America during the heady days of rock and roll, the denim jeans market grew dramatically, when pop stars and film stars were seen wearing them, they became fashion icons, for teenagers and young adults to copy. Before this period, young people were not really seen as a category on themselves. They were seen either as children who had no spending power or as adults. During the fifties nearly everybody, quite suddenly had a lot more money than they did during the hard times of the war. Young people had their own spending power as consumers, they became known as teenagers: a new group waiting for fashions and lifestyles on which to spend their money, looking for heroes to follow and interests to pursue.

In the early 1980's the sales of Levi 501's were very low. Levi's then had to find a way of increasing the sales. During the 1960's - 70's when jeans were exported from America, the jeans market grew bigger and bigger. Bartle, Bogle and Hegarty were employed to give the jeans a brand new identity.
The jeans' new identity was like that of 1950's rebels Marlon Brando and James Dean. They both wore jeans; white t-shirts, leather jackets and they rode big American motorbikes. They were always considered the "tough guys". They thought they could get anything they wanted, and everyone liked and admired them even though they were rebels. Everyone between the age of 15-19 years wanted to be like them and the Levi's commercials encouraged teenagers to go out and buy some jeans so they could be rebels too. This is exactly what Bartle, Bogle and Hegarty wanted. They produced a sequence of cinema and television advertisements.

All of the advertisements have a shot of the protagonist and show how he will do anything to protect his jeans. For example, in the advertisement "The Beach", the 'Levi's Man' gets his dog to keep guard over his jeans. Also in the "Pawnbroker", the protagonist has to get some money for his car. When he leaves, the owner points to his jeans. You could tell he really didn't want to sell them but had to, in order get some money.

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All the Levi's commercials display an image of sex, youth, freedom and rebellion. In the advertisement "Parting", the 'Levi's Man' gave a woman a pair of Levi 501's. The women took the jeans home and put them on. To illustrate the image of sex in this advertisement, they show close-ups of the jeans being put on and the buttons being done up slowly.

All the songs used in the advertisements were number one hits. The music was chosen carefully and always goes with the story line of the advertisement. When the advertisements were first shown on television, Bartle, Bogle and ...

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