In this advert, the image of a typical single male seems to be portrayed. The man is predictably good looking, with a good body, and the audience is led to believe that he is meeting a girl. This is how a lot of young men at that time would wish to be, meaning that many viewers would believe wearing the jeans would make them more good looking, and more likely to get a woman.
Advertisement 67 ( laundrette) features another predictably good-looking man again, walking into a laundrette. He walks in 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 two young women admiring the man as he walks over to the washing machine and begins to remove his clothes. He then begins to undo the buttons at the front of his jeans as the camera again focuses on this (the usp). When he pulls off 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 much larger man, who wears boring clothes and doesn’t stand out like the young man wearing the jeans. The man has an almost disapproving look upon his face, this represents one of the ways he’s treated by others. At the very end of the advert the young man who stripped begins to read a newspaper, which is an 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 key sound in this advert is the music played throughout “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.
Advert 72 (pick-up) is set in the middle of a desert highway, and
begins with a man and woman standing next to their broken down
car. The man is not what would be described as good-looking,
wearing a suit and thick glasses. A good-looking man stops and gets
out of his truck to help the couple. This man is again confident,
along with wearing Levi’s jeans. He is attempting to fix the couple’s
car, whilst doing so he spills hot water on the other man’s foot,
the camera zooms in to show the contrast between the Levi hero’s
practicality and the other man’s incompetence. The man begins to
remove his jeans. The woman looks over at him admiringly, with the
man she is with, possibly her boyfriend, looking shocked and
stepping in front of her as if he is trying to shield her from the
other man. This man is obviously not admiring the Levi’s, and by
showing the less attractive of the two men not admiring the jeans,
audiences may feel that by not wearing the Levi’s, they may be
looked upon as this man is.
Once the man removes his jeans, he proceeds to tie the two cars
together using his jeans. He then gets into his truck and beckons
the woman to him. Glancing once at the man she was with, she goes
to the truck with the man who was wearing the jeans. This is
another example of how people in these advertisements are much
more attracted to those who wear the jeans (the heroes) than
those who don’t. They then drive away, with the jeans helping to
tow the broken down car. Whilst driving up a hill, the Levi hero
suddenly changes gear sharply, resulting in the bumper suddenly
falling off the truck and the other man being left behind. We
notice that the bumper falls off and not the Levi’s, which is
showing how strong they must be.
The song that is playing in the background seems to be doing the
talking. It was almost as if they had a wordless conversation, the
man stripping to attract the woman to him, while she looks on, and
him nodding to her to get into the car with him. The song backs up
these actions strongly.
The Aston “separates the men from the boys” is displayed at the
end of this advert. I think that this is shown in several ways in the
advert. They are trying to show that the man who has his woman
taken away from him by a much more good-looking man is a boy,
whereas the other is a man (Levi hero). Also the jeans are tied
between the two vehicles, they are literally separating the men
from the boys. This catchphrase indicates to the audience that you
are more of a man if you choose to wear Levi’s.
Throughout these adverts the Levi heroes are all 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 man got his
woman taken away. Overall there is the interpretation 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.