Levi's Wants Men to Unleash Their Beast
In what appears to be a last ditch effort to make itself a relevant brand and something even the most fashion-unconscious would ever consider buying, Levis has resorted to grade school humor with Unbutton Your Beast. And, yes, they do mean the trouser snake.
Created by EVP and LAIKA/house, a collection of trouser puppets offer up nastiness you can send to your friends. It's not Dick in a Box which at least had the decency to leave something to the imagination. Nope, Unbutton Your beast is very blatantly all about what's behind the zipper and how much it wants to come out and play.
There's Cookie the Cougar, Sire Reginald Mighty Pants, Honky Tonk Hank, Saucy Sal (yes, a sausage! or is it meatballs. either way!), Trout Troutman and Paul the (ouch) Pincher.
Forget about Mastercard's Priceless. Priceless would have been the chance to sit in on the concepting for this. "Um, yea, nothing else will sell these things, How about dick?"
Creepy (and funny) as this is, you've got to love a client who will approve something like this so we can all cringe/laugh/cry/puke and...oh wait...maybe this is a good thing. If this campaign is a success, maybe girls the world over will be asking guys to show them they've got behind their zipper. And, really, that can't be all bad, can it?
Comments
All you need to do to be a successful advertiser is to create something that will get a 'rise' out of the public (no pun intended).
this is beyond bad. i'm now going to go read a book, or work on a few math problems to offset the damage this has done to my brain.
Poor Levis - button fly 501's are quite comfy - why not just remind us of that fact? I think there are plenty of folks that would rather have a solid pair of comfy, all-american jeans, and would never be caught dead in $200 designer crap.
I love Levis jeans and my beast always wants to be unleashed. This ad was very relevant to everyone that matters to the Levis men's line - young, horny,stylish men who don't take themselves too seriously to care about wearing $200 jeans.
Wow. I'm surprised to see so many people outraged by this ad. I think it is perfect viral.
As I said on my blog: http://www.speakmediablog.com/2008/10/levis-viral-delivers-and-disturbs-but.html
It's funny. Offensive. Juvenile. Silly. Interactive. Designed to be shared. And, right on with the target demographic.
That's all viral need be.
I think it's a hit.
Jennifer of Speak Media Blog
"It's funny. Offensive. Juvenile. Silly. Interactive. Designed to be shared. And, right on with the target demographic.
That's all viral need be."
You forgot an adjective Jennifer of Speak Media Blog...That's all WASTEFUL viral need be.
Hey Kevin Horne,
I disagree. The entire campaign was designed to be shared among a certain demographic.
The target demo is college kids.
College kids like this kind of humor.
The goal is for it to be shared.
College kids share things that make them laugh.
Add to that - every kid who passes it along provides Levi's with TWO EMAIL ADDRESSES (their own and the recipient) so now Levi's has collected their target demo's contact information. Hardly wasteful!
AND, I don't know if you recall how influential humorous ads can be on younger demos. But, I remember ordering Bud Dry in my early 20s just because the ads made me laugh - this is typical behavior in that demographic.
So, I stand by my assertion that this is perfect viral. But thanks for playing!
Jennifer