Levis Adverts.

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Yr 10 Essay on Levis Adverts

Levis jeans were introduced in the 1970's where young people all over the world wore them. They were 'an international uniform.' But about 12 years later everything changed because Levis were becoming old and were often called 'my dad's jeans': sales started dropping because no young people wanted to wear them. This is when the 501's came in for any 15-20 year old that wanted to look good. At the end of the year 1985 Levis started advertising their new 501's eg. The launderette and the bath adverts. In 1986 they started shooting adverts for usage in 1987 and black 501's were introduced: also a pair of jeans specially cut and designed for women. This advertising campaign was necessary because no-one was buying Levis so they were going out of business: bringing in this advertising with the launderette advert was a good way to sell them because a young man is shown wearing the jeans and this will attract other young people to wear Levis 501's.

Compare the 2 Levis 501's adverts that you saw, the one set in the launderette and the Russian one.

The stories of the 2 adverts are very different: the Russian advert is very serious and tense whereas the one in the launderette is more relaxing and fun.

The storyline of the Russian advert keeps you in suspense: it is all about freedom; and how the people of Russia were restricted.

It is set in a train station where a Russian man has just come back from America: while going through customs his bag is checked and in it he has a James Dean magazine and photos, he also has a pair of jeans wrapped up but the customs officer checking the bag is distracted by the army walking through and forgets about the wrapped up package, when the man gets home he is relieved, then the jeans are shown the slogan reads: There's blue jeans And there's Levis. In the advert there is no dialogue only signs like the man at customs saluting the army but we can always tell what is happening with the music volume and people's facial expressions: the advert is effective without the dialogue.

The story of the Launderette advert is very simple. It is about a man going to the laundry to wash the clothes he has got on. It is a very fun, bubbly advert to watch (most women would like it because of the man!). The advert shows the man putting stones in the washing machine showing us that they are stoned wash jeans. It is an advert that hasn't got a lot of seriousness in it compared to the Russain one.The Russian on has more of a stronger message to get across. I think it is more of a casual advert that doesn't make people think it just advertises the jeans whereas the Russian one gets people to stop and think. This advert also doesn't have any dialogue: it has the song 'Heard it through the Grapevine' which is very effective for the advert because it makes it feel fun and summery and also suggests that the laundry is a place for gossip, but in this advert there are no clues telling us how people are feeling but you can just see peoples facial expressions and what mood they are in.
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The setting of the Russian advert is set in a train station in Russia. It is a very bleak, dark station and is very empty looking. There are not a lot of people in the station and everyone in the station is very serious looking. People in the station don't look very friendly. There is a big picture of the Russian Leader Lenin who was the mover behind the revolution; this is showing us that he was a very important figure to the Russian people. When the man leaves the station everything outside is bleak, dark and deserted; ...

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