Reflection #12: please remember your KPIs!!

Levi's and Beyoncé: it should have been harder to screw up.

The first thing that struck me about the new Levi’s ad featuring Beyoncé was how lonely it is compared to the original one. 

Unlike the famous laundrette ad from the 80s, where star Nick Kamen walks into a laundromat and starts stripping before popping his jeans into the washing machine to a room full of ogling and shocked commoners, Beyoncé walks in and starts stripping to the quiet curiosity of four people.

Only one of them eyes her cheekily while she bends over, only one of them is a man. Because there’s so little extras in the advert, this truth becomes painfully obvious. 

Through one simple frame, through the song in the background, what could have been an iconic reimagined throwback becomes sexist (I won’t even stop too much to ponder the choice of an ass shot as the first shot). 

“Call me pretty little thing,

and I love to turn him on,

boy I’ll let you be my Levi’s jeans,

so you can hug that thing all day long. 

Come here you sexy little thing,

you wish you were my Levi’s jeans

Love you down to the bone”.

I have nothing against being sexual! But it is one thing to appreciate a woman’s sexuality through her own eyes, and another to center - instead - the male gaze. 

The line between objectification and reclaiming sexuality is a thin one, and I am not sure we are within the correct borders here. 

But the ad doesn’t just sin with sexism, it is also boring and too posh for the product it is selling. 

This is an ad that shows an exclusive item made to be worn by the few and admired by the many. Indeed, she comes in and drops a bucket of diamonds in her laundromat with her clothes. 

Her fame may attract consumers, but this choice alienates the wider intended female audience, amongst which Live wishes to strengthen its positioning and who could only ever dream of diamonds.

Consumers have changed, yes, aspiration and branding is potentially much more important now, but the core of marketing is still sales. 

Talking about the 1985 ad, John Hegarty (creative on the ad) said:

“At that time in 1982 there was a bit of a recession and people were looking at value for money. We said there is a value in making a great pair of jeans because it’s workwear […]He says the research showed two things: Levi’s had a product with unique features that should be celebrated – “a common product with a speciality” – and a desire among prospective customers for identity” ¹

Thanks to this 52 second spot, Levi’s sales increased by 800%. I can’t imagine the new version having any similar impact (perhaps, tho, I am just wrong). 

The original advert worked because it showed that while a celebrity wore the jeans, he was just a vessel, the jeans were clearly the product being sold. Through them, every single character sitting there, waiting for their laundry basket, could aspire to be as cool as Nick Kamen. 

Instead, the jeans are no longer the focus of the ad; in their 2024 rendition, Beyoncé is. Her sculpted body, her bucket full of diamonds tell the audience: you will never be her. And that look that one guy gives her tells me: perhaps, I don’t want to be. 

1. https://www.marketingweek.com/levis-laundrette-sales-boost/