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 Hegarty made sure that the song was also released as a single on the same day. Again in the advertisement "Pawnbroker", the old man gave money for a pair of Levi's which gave the protagonist a key to freedom. He then had money to buy petrol for his car so that he could drive away with his girlfriend. The fact that they have run out of petrol and money suggests they have runaway.
In nearly all of the Levi's advertisements, everyone except the 'Levi's Man' was either old or acting in style. For example, in "Pawnbroker", the owner was an old man and in "Pool Hall" the person who challenged the 'Levi's Man' to a game of pool with the ugly and over-weight man. The ugly over-weight man believed that he could beat the protagonist at a game of pool. They were playing for a pair of Levi Jeans, and when the protagonist beat the man, he pointed to his trousers and made him take them off. The ugly man was then left in the middle of the pool hall with his trousers down.
In each advertisement the protagonist would do anything for his precious jeans. They were his most priceless possession.
The protagonist was either giving himself or somebody else freedom. In the advertisement "Parting", the protagonist gave his girlfriend a package, which had a pair of Levi 501's in it, because he was going off to join the army and go to war. The jeans were given to the girlfriend as a gift and to remember him by. The girlfriend was expected to treasure the jeans as she would him. The jeans are seen as a life force in their own right.
Another example of how Levi's can give you freedom was shown in "The Pickup", where the protagonist helped a couple whose car had broken down. The 'Levi's Man' couldn't fix the car so he decided to tow the car using his Levi's. He tied one leg of his jeans to the bumper of the couple's car and the other leg to his car. The protagonist asked the woman to ride in the car with him so they all got in the car and drove off. The Protagonist then put his foot down on the accelerator, broke the bumper off and they were free to go. They left the man in the middle of nowhere and the protagonist got himself a new girlfriend. The point of the advertisement was to show how strong Levi's jeans were.
Once again the 'Levi's Man' got what he wanted and was on his way to freedom. At the end of each advertisement there was a caption; the caption gave the meaning of the entire advertisement. In the "Pickup", the caption at the end of the advertisement was:
"Separates the men from the boys"
The caption illustrated that the male with the Levi's, was the better of the two and will always get what he wants. There was always a message in the caption at the end of each advertisement.
The story line of the advertisement was important because this was what increased the sales. The brand new identity of the jeans changed from being very unfashionable to becoming very fashionable and 'cool' to wear. In addition, Levi's cut and style has not changed since they were first made in 1873. All the materials that are used to make 501's are kept a secret, because Levi's didn't want any other companies stealing the material and making duplicates.
There was a lot of humour in the advertisements. For example, in the "Refrigerator", it was a hot summer's day in the middle of the desert. The protagonist came down the stairs in nothing but white boxer shorts. Everyone was looking at him as he walked over to the refrigerator, opened the door and got out a pair of Levi 501's! He put them on slowly, walked outside and rode off on his motorbike. Also in the advertisement "Launderette", he went in to wash his pair of Levi 501's. The protagonist filled the washing machine up with stones; stripped down to his white boxers and sat down in front of everyone whilst waiting for his Levi's to wash.
All of the advertisements had a lot of similarities, but with subtle differences. I am now going to write about two of the advertisements in more detail. They are "The Deal" and "Russia". The two advertisements were made to try and persuade people to purchase Levi 501's.
In "Russia" the advertisement was set in some sort of airport or train station. During the cold war, American products were not allowed in Russia, so importing the jeans was seen as a great risk. The advertisement was filmed in black and white. This conveyed a scary and cold feeling. In one scene there was a shot of the ex-Russian leader 'Lenin'. In the advertisement there are soldiers and agents of the government. That is, they are there to make sure everyone does as they are told. Behind the soldiers was an enormous painting of the ex-Russian leader Lenin. The painting shows that it was a totalitarian and that it was a symbol of the government's dominance. The soldiers are armed with guns and this gives you the impression that Lenin was an important man who was admired by a lot of people, even though he was dead.
Lenin, the Russian Leader.
In "Russia" when the protagonist takes the Levi's from America into Russia, his freedom without his Levi's was limited. The music in the advertisement was very harsh but towards the end, it softened down to a saxophone. Towards the end of the advertisement there was another close up of the protagonist's jeans. This shows the freedom of American jazz.
When he escaped from the airport or train station, he went to a hotel room and opened his suitcase. Inside the suitcase there were some magazines. The American rebel James Dean is seen briefly on the cover of one of the magazines. At the end of the "Russia" advertisement the Levi's tag was shown in red. Colour was used to make the Levi's symbol stand out more. This was the only colour in the whole advertisement.
In the advertisement "The Deal", there was a woman working in an office. It seemed as if the workers had boring lives. She stood out from all the others because she had red hair connoting her inner fieriness! As the people were working, the 'Levi's Man' came out of the lift on his motorbike and drove into the office and up to the woman with the red hair. Everyone looked round at the protagonist in amazement. This advertisement used low angle shots to give the impression that the protagonist was really big. The protagonist got out a package and dropped it down on the table. The woman opened the package and it was a pair of Levi 501's. It is a challenge, she has the choice of staying in the office and continuing to lead her boring life, or she could have put on the Levi's and rode off on a motorbike into the sunset with the protagonist. The woman chose to put on the Levi's. She then took off her skirt in the middle of the office and slowly put on the Levi's. You could see the button's being done up slowly and one by one. She got on the motorbike and they both rode off into the sunset. The woman has to put on the Levi's otherwise she wouldn't be able to get on the motorbike and she would have had no freedom.
The protagonists were both using Levi's to escape from their lives. "Russia" and "The Deal" were two very different advertisements. In "Russia", the protagonist was shown as a very small person, who was running away from everyone. To show this they filmed the advertisement at a high angle, but in "The Deal" the protagonist was shown as a big hero who could get anything he wanted.
To show that the protagonist was important in this advertisement, it was filmed it at a low angle. In "Russia" you could tell that he was afraid, because he was always running away from something. When he left the airport or train station, he walked down a small street to his house. As he was walking home, you got the impression that someone was watching him because there were shots showing a car drawing up and also there was Russian military music playing. You got this impression because of the way the protagonist acted and the kind of music that is being played.
To make the guards look like they had a lot of power, they were all carrying guns on their shoulders. Soon after, what looked like a very important officer walked past and saluted the guard. Now the guards didn't seem so important. When the protagonist got back to his house, you noticed that he had built up his confidence and no longer appeared as weak as he did before. Again the protagonist got what he wanted. In each of the advertisements, it showed that Levi's are the most important thing. In the "Russia" advertisement the Levi's were the most important thing, because the protagonist was trying to get them into the country. Because the advertisements showed that the jeans were important in everyone's life, teenagers all went out and brought a pair, because people saw them as young, popular and stylish.
This was the new identity that led to Levi's success. Bartle, Bogle and Hegarty's campaign for Levi's jeans brought the idea of freedom and success. All of the advertisements portrayed this. During the campaign the sales of Levi 501's rose rapidly. The sales of the jeans in 1987 were twenty times more than in 1984.
The advert that I think was more effective then the other adverts was “The Deal” because the contrast between sitting in a dead end job, leading a boring life and having a pair of Levi 501’s being free, having no cares in life is really portrayed. As I mentioned before the way the protagonist gave the jeans to the women was saying to her take the jeans and be free or don’t take them and live a frustrating and boring life.