Analysis of a Levi's Advert
Russia
The first thing we notice about the advert is that it is shot in black and white, supposedly to show the severity of Russia. It looks like an olden style black and white film, and feels very retro. The advert starts off with a close up of a picture, with the face of the Russian leader, Lenin. As the camera moves down, it shows a traveller about to go through customs. The camera then zooms in on the baggage check, and the traveller's face soon turns anxious. The inspector or the customs officer then checks the baggage, with a sinister look on his face. The traveller obviously has something to hide judging by the look on his face. The customs officer almost instantly guesses that something's wrong. There is a magazine in the bag with a picture of James Dean on the front. An important military officer walks past, which turns the officer's attention to him. He is obviously someone important, as he salutes to him. Straight afterwards, after the person has walked past, the officer closes the case of the traveller indicating that he is totally clean, and can go ahead. The next camera angle is that of a long distance shot, showing him alighting off a bus. Then there is a very long shot of a deserted street, with just the one traveller walking along. A car passes with a few watchful faces inside, probably looking at the walking traveller. Then, we see the traveller impatiently walking towards his apartment, open the door, and close it, with a sigh of relief, obviously glad that he got away from someone, probably authority, or someone that he was trying to hide something from. Then, he leaves a door inside open, and empties the contents of his case, and finds a package wrapped in grey paper. He unwraps it, revealing a pair of Levi's jeans, and as he turns the jeans over, the label appears in red. This label is the only colour in the whole advert. A Russian sentence then appears, which translates to "There's blue jeans, and there's Levi's."
Pawnbroker
This advert, unlike the Russia one, is in colour. The advert starts off with a car, entering the camera view, just the right of the frame. The car enters the frame, from the left just underneath a subway. The camera changes into a view inside the car, with a woman noticing the fuel gauge is reading empty. The camera then turns to the Driver, who is male, as he is concerned about the fuel, wondering what to do. Then the camera pans round to the woman, who is also concerned, as they both have no money ...
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Pawnbroker
This advert, unlike the Russia one, is in colour. The advert starts off with a car, entering the camera view, just the right of the frame. The car enters the frame, from the left just underneath a subway. The camera changes into a view inside the car, with a woman noticing the fuel gauge is reading empty. The camera then turns to the Driver, who is male, as he is concerned about the fuel, wondering what to do. Then the camera pans round to the woman, who is also concerned, as they both have no money to afford fuel. The car turns onto the side of the road, and parks under a subway. The driver gets out and crosses the street. He enters a pawnbroker, with the camera focusing on an elderly woman walking past. This is signifying that it's not a common sight to see a young man in a pawnbroker. The camera shows a medium shot of the driver entering, from the waist down, focusing on the driver legs getting closer to the camera. This was deliberate as the main purpose of the advert is to sell the jeans, and this camera view focuses on the legs. We next see that he offers his watch to the pawnbroker, as the person behind the counter looks at it through a magnifying glass, then he looks up, and shakes his head, indicating that he doesn't want the watch, and isn't willing to take it. The camera takes a close-up of the driver's bottom, focusing on the jeans, and the pair of sunglasses that he removes from his back pocket. These are instantly refused and handed back to him. The driver is disappointed, and he walks out, looking disconsolate. Just as he's about to leave the pawnbroker, the person calls him back, and the person behind the counter points to his Jeans, indicating that his jeans are special and that he wants them. The driver is unsure, as he wants the jeans too, but he also wants the money. The next camera angle is of the woman in the car, who sees the driver return to the car with the money in his hand. The woman is delighted! But as soon as the driver opens the car door, we see that the driver has sold his jeans, and is wearing a pair of swapped trousers. The woman collapses in laughter, and the driver ruefully enters the car again. The camera then shows the man in the pawnbrokers, with the receipt for the Jeans, and the pair of jeans, being put in safe storage. The caption then reads, "Originals have always been sought after".
Launderette
'Launderette' shows the text "Now available stone washed" at the end, as in the past people would also often wash their jeans along with stones to create a stone washed effect.
This features another conventionally good-looking man again, walking into a laundrette. He walks in and towards a washing machine, with two small boys staring and admiring him over the top of a washing machine, before their mother pulls them away. We also see 2 young women admiring the man, they are looking at him and giggling, obviously embarrassed by their admiration.
The man is very well groomed, with slick hair and obviously takes care over his appearance. You can see by the way he walks and looks that he is very confident.
He walks over to a washing machine and begins to remove his clothes. When he pulls off his belt it runs smoothly through the belt loops, undressing almost like a stripper. He then begins to undo the buttons at the front of his jeans as the camera again focuses on this. When he pulls of his jeans the underwear that he is wearing is snow white. This is a sharp contrast with his jeans and tanned skin.
After taking off his clothes he puts them into a washing machine, before tipping a bag of stones into the machine with them.
He then turns and sits down next to a large man, who wears dull clothes and doesn't stand out like the young man wearing the jeans. The man has an almost disapproving look upon his face. At the very end of the advert the young man who stripped begins to read a newspaper, which is a very everyday act, which is showing how the man doesn't feel like him stripping is anything out of the ordinary, indicating confidence and boldness.
The music played throughout this advert is "Heard it on the grapevine," which is how gossip is often referred to and suggests that the man is something to gossip about, and somebody that is talked about.
For young people, again they see somebody good looking wearing jeans, and in this advert the man wearing the jeans is admired by others, looks confident and stands out. Many people seeing this would believe that the jeans would make them stand out like that young man and purchase Levi's jeans.
Beach
Advertisement 74 is set on a beach, showing another good-looking man wearing Levi's jeans, and carrying a surfboard. The man removes the jeans then leaves them on the beach. He bends down towards his dog and points at the jeans, as if he is telling the dog to guard the jeans for him. He then walks away with his surfboard.
A typically good-looking woman in a bikini comes along the beach and sees the jeans. She looks for a moment before putting them on. When she attempts to walk away the dog grabs her leg and barks at her. She tries in vain to shake the dog off, but isn't able to before the young man originally wearing the jeans comes back.
The man laughs and then they walk away together laughing.
Again this advert shows the man who is wearing the jeans getting the woman. In all the adverts that I have written about so far it has been the man wearing the jeans every time, and usually the man who is admired by the woman. In this advert the woman does put the jeans on, and the man looks at her in an admiring way, but again it is the man wearing the Levi's that gets the woman and the woman that is attracted to the man, or to his jeans, showing how the Levi's are once again the reason that the man gets the woman.
Summary
Many impressionable audiences would believe that buying the jeans would make them instantly attractive, as the people featuring in these advertisements are, and seeing the man in the Levi's always getting the girl would be an incentive to many young men to purchase these jeans.
Throughout these adverts the men are all conventionally good-looking, the woman are usually fairly attractive also. They all appear to have confidence, such as the young man who strips in the laundrette. Also others always admire the men that are wearing the Levi's for their jeans, and they always get the woman, as opposed to the men who aren't wearing Levi's which in one advert one such man got his woman taken away. Overall there is the portrayal of people that wear Levi's being better looking, admired by others, and being attractive to others. This would convince many people to purchase the jeans.
