Nick Kamen was famous for a while. He was a pop star in the eighties and had a hit with a thing called 'Each Time You Break My Heart'. It wasn't terribly good. But his music wasn't the reason he was famous. No, the reason he was famous was for taking off his trousers in an advertisement.
If you're of a certain age, you will immediately know which advertisement this was. The launderette, the chattering women, the curious girl - it is surely all replaying in your mind's eye. But, if you're mystified, then you're really missing something. Because this was an ad for Levis jeans, and it was absolutely ubiquitous in 1985. People talked about it on buses, at work and in pubs. Comedy shows made parodies of it and other advertisers even attempted their own versions. Oh, and it used Marvin Gaye's stone-cold classic 'I Heard It Through The Grapevine' as its soundtrack. Anyone who doesn't recognise the work (through BBH, by the way) as something approaching the perfect ad, doesn't really understand advertising. It was that good. And here it is:
Better still, it was merely the introductory spot for a long-running chain of brilliantly shot and fantastically scored commercials, which ran for years. This was advertising as art or cinema, with budgets to match. It worked too. All the songs were hits as re-releases, and Lee, Wrangler and Lee Cooper were left twirling in Levis' dust. If you wore denims in the late 1980s, they had to be Levis - preferably 501s - unless being permanently uncool was your style goal.
"Following that blaze of glory, where does a brand go next?"
By the early nineties, the format of the ads had been tweaked slightly. The films were still inventive and smartly put together, but the music came from unknown acts like Freak Power, Stiltskin and Babylon Zoo. Then, finally, the campaign came to a close; exhausted, but rightly proud to be one of the finest examples of creative work the industry has ever produced. Which raises a rather obvious problem - following that blaze of glory, where does a brand go next? And there's a brief to bring on mixed emotions: "The good news is, you're working on the Levis account. The bad news is, you have to better the greatest campaign ever."
Last week, a new suite of Levis ads appeared, with low-key TV spots, a bit of print and some outdoor stuff (there's probably in-store work too, but I haven't been shopping for jeans). It's not too bad. Monochrome, expensive-looking photography and a new line: 'Live In Levis'. I quite like that actually. It does its job in three words, and includes an anagram ('Elvis' is another). I'm just slightly underwhelmed. Levis is a brand that conquered the world, the jeans are still the best on the market and remain a cool consumer choice. This new advertising doesn't quite capture all that. I know it's understated by design, but I'm concerned it's so subtle that it passes by almost without notice.
That said, it's very hard to know what one would do instead. Levis advertising is so ingrained in popular culture, so admired and fondly recalled, where could one possibly go with it? No, I can't criticise this latest campaign. In another setting, for another client, it would be more than adequate. Unfortunately though, in creative terms, Levis may just be a victim of their own success.
Magnus Shaw is a copywriter, blogger and consultant
