Levi's Advertising: Bring America Back to the Americans

Something people might frequently worry about is self-identity, and how to express who they are. When looking for an outlet to do this, the easiest way to show what kind of person someone is, clothes are usually the first choice: a black t-shirt with a cynical saying, or maybe some skinny black jeans. Whether the advertising agencies created the personalities that come with clothes or took advantage of what was already there, clothes are often sold as something more than just clothes. Companies must ask how to convince consumers to buy their product instead of the competitors’, regardless of price difference. Particularly Levi’s jeans, a 150+-year-old American business, has been trying different approaches to packaging the type of consumers that buy their jeans.

Pants are packaged differently for all different types of people. Levi’s jeans are synonymous with being American, being created by Americans and worn by Americans of all status and type. They can evoke the image of dude ranches and overalls, hard work on the farms and easy lounging in the Midwest. Over the years as more companies started to make and sell jeans, Levi’s has had to change their image in order to attract more and new consumers, but going on their website, their front page will still show a lone grizzled man, a tattoo running along his right arm, sleeves short, sweat covering his strained face, standing ready on an open endless field, of course, wearing a pair of Levi’s jeans. Now go to the website for Guess, a company which focuses more on the style than the use of the jeans, and there are pictures strewn around like photographs, featuring muscular men with unbuttoned shirts blowing in the wind. With their scruffy faces and golden tans, the men on the site ...

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...broken world, with one scene having a mob berating a suited man, who later breaks down in his office. Compared with their ‘Live Unbuttoned’ campaign, Levi’s is saying the time of carefree is over; it is time to take back your country. This also resonates with their original packaging of Levi’s 501 jeans, jeans that were made for the original pioneers of America, the workers of the west.

While McDonald’s is selling a fast burger and a break in your day, Levi’s focuses on selling an entire lifestyle to resonate with the current attitude of Americans towards overbearing and destructive corporations. Levi’s tries to makes its pants represent the fight for freedom and nonconformity, the fight to be yourself and the fight to take back your country. They aren’t selling fashion or strong pants; they are selling unity and the fight to bring America back to the Americans.