We studied a series of Levi commercials dating from the late 80's and early 90's.
Discuss Issues of Representation In a series of Levi’s Commercials
We studied a series of Levi commercials dating from the late 80’s and early 90’s. These commercials were extremely successful and the Levi brand name is now known world wide. The original Levi jeans were made for cowboys on the ‘wild west’ in the early 20’s and where famed for their durability. In this essay I will explore the various issues of representation which are used to sell jeans.
The first Levi’s commercial I am going to be analysing is the advert of a man in a laundrette. This man is tall, dark haired, dark skinned and who is also muscular. He enters the laundrette and there are several people in there. He then stands next to a washing machine and starts to remove the clothes he is wearing. Being an attractive male this attracts the interest of all of the young, and also attractive, women in the laundrette. He strips down to his waist and puts his pair of Levi jeans into the washing machine. At this point I feel the advert is useless, but there is a huge twist. He then, after he has placed his Levis in the washing machine, opens his bag and starts to throw lots of stones into the washing machine. He washes his jeans with the stones. This is the catchphrase for the advert, ‘Levi jeans – now stone washed.’ The idea of this advert is to let the viewers know that Levi’s now come in a stone washed design. I believe this advert is directed at females. The idea of a young handsome man will attract the attention of young women. I think that the target audience for this advert is aimed at young women aged 18 – 25. I think this because his is the age group which is most likely to purchase these jeans. I personally rate this advert seven out of ten.
