My second advert is called ‘Launderette’, it takes places in the summer. It starts with a close up of a moving 1950’s American car, then pans to a mid-shot of a soldier standing outside a launderette to suggest organization and authority as in the ‘Russia’ advert. Following that is a close up of a mans hand opening the door of the launderette, with a close up of a little boy in a red baseball cap behind the man standing up causes you to think about sexuality because you could see his lower half of his butt where the boys head reaches. A close up of the man’s face revels who he is and shows he’s in his mid- twenty’s. The steamy setting in the launderette applies the place is hot and sexy. Like most of the adverts the launderette has a golden glow to the place. Putting money in the washing machine, in a mid-shot of the man shows he’s getting ready to do some washing. In a close up of the man’s behind the little boy in a red baseball cap jumps behind the washing machine to see what the man is up to. There is a fan in the back round suggesting the place is hot. The shot changes to a mid-shot and goes behind the boys back to show he is looking up to the man and respects him. The little boy is watching with fascination at what the man is doing as the man puts stones in the washing machine with a shot that is taken from inside the washing machine in a close up. The man puts stones in the washing machine because he he’s Levi’s jeans to be stone washed. The boys twin jumps up to see what’s going on in a close up of the man’s behind with the boys faces in the back round. In a mid-shot the twin’s mother comes and drags her boys away from the man because she doesn’t want her boys copying the man and acting like him. She gives him a disapproving look. Going on to another mid-shot of two young women reading magazines, when the man starts taking his shirt off in slow motion, while the women are watching. It makes you think about sex because half of his body is showing and he has muscles. He then puts his shirt in the washing machine. As he as he unbuttons his jeans slowly in a close up of his groin again making u think about sex and the man’s sexuality. The women start giggling in a mid shot, while the man bends over slowly again as if he is not aware of the attention he is getting from the two women and the rest of the people in the launderette, it shows he is not shy but confident of his body. The man takes off his Levi’s jeans to show white boxers underneath. In a close up of a stern young woman watching him with a surprised look unable to tear her eyes off him. As he puts he’s jeans in the washing marching in a mid to long shot with everyone staring he looks incongruous, but cool. An old woman eating bread with her mouth open while looking at the man makes the viewer think of hunger for him by the other women in the launderette. A close up of the sexy young man sitting next to a fat old man projects the mans youthfulness and makes him appear better looking
My third advert is called ‘Pick-up’. It takes place in a desert road in the summer. It starts off with a long shot of an empty desert road suggesting America and freedom. It has the golden glow as mentioned in the launderette advert. A mid-shot of a 1950’s American car that’s broken down with a middle aged man and a young woman as the owners of the car. A mysterious stranger came in a pick-up truck driving out from the sun set in a long shot. The middle aged man in to open the bonnet but can’t because he is not macho and he knows nothing about cars. He is a geek, a conformist, a loser. In a mid-shot as the truck drove by the lady looks at her potenisual and folds her hands in a mid-shot because she is getting impatient with the geek (man in suit). There is a close up of the man’s cowboy boots from under his truck. By doing that it kept the man mysterious and made him (his boots) look cool and trendy. In a close up of the man face he was wearing sun glassed, and as he took them off, his eyes and the woman’s locked but her eyes slid down to the mans jeans. The woman’s woman ness is being enfersized as was the man’s ruggedness. The woman is wearing a frilly dress while the man is wearing cowboy boots, jeans, and a bandana. The man opens the bonnet in a mid-shot making the nerd look stupid because he couldn’t open it. When the nerd tried to take the lid off the radiator in a mid-shot he burns himself. The man got his bandana and opened it with it. When the lid came off, hot water spilled on the man’s shoes as the camera paned below to a mid-shot of the nerd’s shoes. There is then a close up of the man shaking his as if to say, ‘sorry but its not my fault’ ’. The man starts to take of his belt in a close up around where his groin was. While the confused nerd was looking at the man’s belt, in a close up of his face, as if to ask, ‘what are you doing’? In another close up of the man’s pants as he took off jean buttons one by one. Meanwhile the woman was peeking at the man and looking interested. The nerd clamed down the bonnet to go cover the woman’s view in a mid-shot. While taking off his jeans the man was keeping eye contact with the woman as if to say, ‘look at what you can get.’ The woman looked over the nerds shoulder, in a close up, to show she’s interested. A close up of the man gesturing lets go followed by a mid-shot of the woman smiling for the first time at the nerd suggests she is asking for permission. The nerd turns around and goes into his car, just as the woman gets into the man’s truck while smiling. The truck starts to pull the car with the jeans, while the nerd tries to get a peek at what the man and woman are doing. During a close up of the man and the woman’s legs the man reaches and pulls the gear stick, which stands for manly things like a man’s groin. When the man pulls the gear stick the truck rides faster and his bonnet drops off with the jeans still on. It shows the jeans are strong because they didn’t rip in the middle. The nerd’s car started rolling backwards. While the man woman looked at each other smiling as if they had been conspiring to get rid of the nerd. In the end there is a long shot of the truck riding into the sun giving a warm freedom glow for new beginnings. The slogan appears saying, ‘separates the men from the boys’. It goes with the ad because it means the nerd was the boy, and the jeans separated them.
Two of the characters shown in the adverts were similar to each other while the other was different from all the others because the man was older, and he made no attempt to put on the Levi’s jeans on or take the off as in the other ads. The man showed no skin and wore a heavy gray coat while the other characters in the adverts wore next to nothing. The other two characters in the adverts launderette and pick-up were similar to each other because they were young, manly, and sexy. They both had muscles and wore little clothes at the end of the adverts. Their image was to set an example for the type of people who are to wear Levi’s jeans. Those types of people are cool, sexy, and rebellious, have confidence to be different, and are some times older people. The men in the two adverts always looked proud of their jeans and showed it off, however in the Russia advert the man looked scared someone might find him with the jeans. The settings for all the adverts expect ‘Russia’ is in America where it is hot and sunny representing the American counter culture.
In the adverts there are lots of steam to emphasis the hotness of the place. There are also lots of manpowers shown, especially in the Russia advert. No dialog is used in the adverts and the characters all have similar hairstyles. The adverts have sex appeal, with lots of body parts showing. It seems like the women are always following the wearer of the jeans and the women are always pretty, young, and sometimes dainty girls. They are sometimes compared with fat old women to make them stand out, as with the men.
The music ‘I heard it through the grapevine by Marvin Caye was used in the Launderette advert. It was a hit in the 1960’s; therefore it helps create the 1960’s mise-en-scene of the advert. When the advert was shown on television in 1984 the song re-released and charted again. It is a good example of intertextuality and the advert exploited popular music. The song made it easer for people to remember the advert because when the herded the song they thought of the song and it raised brand awareness.
The adverts analyzed were powerful ads in the 1990’s because they were the first of their kind. They made people see adverts are powerful tools in marketing goods, and can influence the audience. The targeted audiences for all three adverts in the 1984 were age 16 to 25. As a girl at age 16 you tent to like older men and have a little bit of money, and as a boy at age 16 you tend to want to be like an older man. At the age of 26 you find your self-becoming older and wanting to settle down. The jeans are made for young, fashionable, rule-breaking people. The Levi’s European advertisement campaign that ran from 1984 to 1990 was successful because it is still talked about today and is known as the ads that changed the world.
