23 August 2011

Now is Our Time {to Go Forth and Vomit}

So I saw a recent Levis ad running online.  I’m not even sure where to begin, so simultaneously amused, awed, and irritated was I.  But I’ll start with awe; beautifully shot, a tender panoply of color and effect and subtle razzmatazz.  The contrast of each pants-wearer’s scenario, well woven into the next transition with fire and petals and water and Batman-era colorful tear gas.  And throughout comes the soothing voice of the narrator droning on in the background amid the sounds of waves crashing and upliftingly light music.

Makes for pleasant effect but by the end I was a tisch vexed, “how dare they” and such.  I think my underlying point of contention was their campy use of the rebelliousness of youth to sell clothing, and of their taking what really is a rousing little poem and somewhat cheapening it thereby.  Not that those social offenses are anything new, or those subjects sacrosanct.  But I think it was the young Ewan McGregor wannabe swaggering up defiantly towards the riot line, and the commercial’s trite fluff-and-gloss of rebellion (more specifically, of rioting and civil unrest), their equating this rebellion to a resurgence in punk youth fashion.  Maybe it was poor timing, now that Libya is finally winning its war on Gaddafi.  If more than mere coincidence, it strikes me as a sort of band-wagoning cash-in not unlike recent statements made by current Republican candidates.

Now don’t get me wrong, I like Levis.  In point of fact, I only wear Levis (527s) so far as jeans go, which are inevitably the only things I wear on my legs when in public.  Solid.  Dependable.  Well-fit.  Et cetera.  And so far as commercials go, it was easier to watch than some of the new Geico ads or any number of deodorizing spray commercials.  But it begs to ask, who does Levi Strauss & Company want its clientele to rebel against?  So far as the rank and file go, Levi is the establishment, the devil-may-care buy-buy-buy corporate steam engine the Man rides to work every morning. 

I dunno, I’m prolly looking too deeply into it.  Nonetheless, it rubbed me against the grain that something as truly brutal and violent (and real, if you will) as rioting/unrest/civil discord can be passed off as something light and cool to sell a few pairs of slacks.  Smacks distasteful.

1 comment:

Dan Rudy said...

Well 'eck, I suppose the commercial is a little older than I thought (launched at the end of July). That changes things a bit (in one sense), though my feeling more or less remains the same. I imagine they were buoyed up on the shoulders of the Arab Spring and set to tap into the cheerfully antiestablishmentarian youth market when England et al happened. In any case, why are the ads still up on Hulu (well may I ask)?