Levi's Greatest Hits

What do the following 4 characters have in common?

Correct, they were all stars in what are commonly considered to be some of Levi's most successful advertising campaigns. Adverts with the perfect selection of music that fully engaged and entertained the consumer.

The first, Mr Boombastic (top left) used the soundtrack of popular singer "Shaggy" who had somewhat disappeared from the music industry but made an incredible comeback off the back of this advertisement, The advert being almost custom built around the song. Shaggy himself stated that watching the advert, the protagonist was Mr Boombastic - a sexy hero whom the ladies cannot resist. This advert fully playing upon the sex appeal factor, to which both visuals and music portray simultaneously.

Top right was part of the Laundrette Campaign, which has been voted as one of the most successful advertisements of all time. This advert used an older piece of music - a re-recorded version of Marvin Gaye's hugely successful record, "Heard it Through the Grapevine". This advert completely reinvented and exposed Levi's to a much wider audience, a product which had previously been regarded as being "the kind of jeans that your dad would wear". The use of an older song exposed the product to a younger demographic. Researchers for this advertisement specifically suggested this song as the 60's were regarded as being a "cool time and place" with younger generations.

Flat Eric (bottom left) employed "house" music, an increasingly popular underground genre, this advert being different from others which generally played on themes of sex and love, Flat Eric simply focused on the dancing puppet and hinting at an unspoken bond between men. Emma Jones in Channel 4's Documentary "TV Advertising's Greatest Hits" stated that we as a nation seem to have a soft spot for a puppet - in reference to popular children's TV shows such as the Muppets and Sesame Street.

Spaceman (bottom right) which remixed a rock song into a "chipmunk" style - doubling the speed of and pitch of the song to make it high pitched and faster - this song being a one hit wonder for the song writers "Babylon Zoo"/ "Jas Mann" who had high ambitions, however being as the song in the advert was different from the original grunge style of the rock band meaning their follow up singles were not what the public were expecting and therefore failed to maintain their interests.

Although these are just 4 examples of Levi's adverts, they have had many successful campaigns all of which employ popular music, so much so that there is a Levi's Greatest Hit's compilation CD available to purchase. It's clear to see how through using the right soundtrack Levi's have been able to continuously advertise and reinvent themselves to keep the consumers interested in their products.