This is an article I wrote for an online magazine quite some time ago…
Today as I was driving home, minding my own business, aligning my afternoon agenda in my head, I happened to notice a billboard differently than I had every other time I’ve seen it over the last three weeks. Today, as I looked up at this Levi Jeans ad on this billboard at the corner of La Brea and Beverly, I took note of what the fuzzy background was: a campfire. Then, as I looked closer, I realized that it was not a woman pushing a man but it was actually a man pushing a man. The slogan on the billboard reads “There is a lot of work to get done, and undone.” What?
This is in Los Angeles, practically in West Hollywood, where it is culturally acceptable to throw images of gay men and women out there for the public to view. Why is this particular campaign so sneaky about it? It isn’t like a few years ago when Dolce n Gabbana had their spring underwear photographs that strategically placed all these half naked men in uncompromising positions. The D&G campaign could easily fool an unsuspecting metro-sexual male from some small city in the Midwest into making the mistake that the ad as truly just an underwear ad. He may think,” I need this underwear so I can be attractive like these men” as the bandwagon technique of advertising would want us to do.
The difference between these two ads is that any gay man would see the D&G ad and immediately notice the pile of naked men a mile high reminding them of last Saturday night. The Levi ad, not so much! The question I throw at the advertising firms of this new decade is, what would happen if there was a little more wit thrown into these ads such as the Levi billboard? I feel that it regards me, as a consumer, as someone with a higher intelligence to figure this out, as well as the feeling that the advertisement is panhandling to a different class of consumers. Somewhat like a witty sophistication or better yet, a trickster hipster campaign. You fooled me, so maybe I will buy your product.
