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penfield"Our society's values are being corrupted by advertising's insistence on the equation: youth equals popularity, popularity equals success, success equals happiness."
- John Arbuthnot Fisher
The stylish folks at Levi's have always been pretty good at the branding and positioning of their product. Not only were they the first jeans company to really capture the public's imagination about the joys of denim, but they have carved out a reputation -- nay, a mythology -- about their indelible stitch in the fabric of Americana. I generally try to avoid corporate branding, but even I own a pair of Levi's*.
*I'm having a little trouble with the possessive form of Levi's, a singular proper unpossessive noun that is already in possessive form. "Levi's'" makes no sense, and it looks stupid besides. I am not going to go through the labor of saying "Levi Strauss's," which is only marginally better anyhow. Just try to ignore it and we'll all move on.
That said, everyone is susceptible to miscalculation. In Levi's case, I offer the following viral marketing campaign, which can only be explained by highly experimental drug use:
Unbutton Your Beast
For one thing, "Unbutton Your Beast" could not possibly be any more sexually suggestive unless they actually showed something roaming and rustling around the jeans' crotchal region. Oh wait, they did that, too. (I'm going to assume, though, that the repetitive phrase "look both ways before unbuttoning my beast" is merely an attempt at wry wit, rather than an peaean to bisexuality.) Okay, fine. I get it. Sex sells.
And then, what should pop out but a talking crab claw. A crab claw. Because if there's one thing people love, it's giving the widespread impression that they have crabs in their pants. And not just crabs, but giant talking crabs advanced enough to afford their own bling. Who exactly is their target demographic? Merchant Marines? Southeast Asian hookers? Paris Hilton?
But the final coup de grace, the masterstroke, is the part when the claw appears to reach back into the pants, pull out a nut and crush it with its razor-sharp pincers.
Take-away message: "These jeans will make you horny, give you crabs and crush your nuts."
Apparently there are other available "beasts" you can select, although none of them match the sheer audacity of "Paul the Pincher." I wonder, did they at any point raise and reject the idea of an anaconda that suddenly tears into a change purse? a cigar monster that lights itself on fire? A giant penis with open sores?
I miss the old jeans commercials where they simply showed cowboys ropin' steers, pals fixin' cars and middle-aged men playin' beer league softball. But times have changed. It's the age of the Internet and product placement and viral marketing. Heaven help us if the Levi's people ever join forces with the Cialis people; I'll never be able to click on Monday Night Football again.
- John Arbuthnot Fisher
The stylish folks at Levi's have always been pretty good at the branding and positioning of their product. Not only were they the first jeans company to really capture the public's imagination about the joys of denim, but they have carved out a reputation -- nay, a mythology -- about their indelible stitch in the fabric of Americana. I generally try to avoid corporate branding, but even I own a pair of Levi's*.
*I'm having a little trouble with the possessive form of Levi's, a singular proper unpossessive noun that is already in possessive form. "Levi's'" makes no sense, and it looks stupid besides. I am not going to go through the labor of saying "Levi Strauss's," which is only marginally better anyhow. Just try to ignore it and we'll all move on.
That said, everyone is susceptible to miscalculation. In Levi's case, I offer the following viral marketing campaign, which can only be explained by highly experimental drug use:
Unbutton Your Beast
For one thing, "Unbutton Your Beast" could not possibly be any more sexually suggestive unless they actually showed something roaming and rustling around the jeans' crotchal region. Oh wait, they did that, too. (I'm going to assume, though, that the repetitive phrase "look both ways before unbuttoning my beast" is merely an attempt at wry wit, rather than an peaean to bisexuality.) Okay, fine. I get it. Sex sells.
And then, what should pop out but a talking crab claw. A crab claw. Because if there's one thing people love, it's giving the widespread impression that they have crabs in their pants. And not just crabs, but giant talking crabs advanced enough to afford their own bling. Who exactly is their target demographic? Merchant Marines? Southeast Asian hookers? Paris Hilton?
But the final coup de grace, the masterstroke, is the part when the claw appears to reach back into the pants, pull out a nut and crush it with its razor-sharp pincers.
Take-away message: "These jeans will make you horny, give you crabs and crush your nuts."
Apparently there are other available "beasts" you can select, although none of them match the sheer audacity of "Paul the Pincher." I wonder, did they at any point raise and reject the idea of an anaconda that suddenly tears into a change purse? a cigar monster that lights itself on fire? A giant penis with open sores?
I miss the old jeans commercials where they simply showed cowboys ropin' steers, pals fixin' cars and middle-aged men playin' beer league softball. But times have changed. It's the age of the Internet and product placement and viral marketing. Heaven help us if the Levi's people ever join forces with the Cialis people; I'll never be able to click on Monday Night Football again.
