Drudge tries to whip out backlash against Levi's

Drudge readers this morning were greeted with news of controversy over a viral web ad called "Unbutton Your Beast" released last night by ad agency EVB for Levi's. It's part of the "Unbutton Yourself" campaign, and it features the crotch of a pair of buttoned Levi's, at first displaying a substantial bulge that dances around behind the zipper. A few seconds later, one of several tricked-out, phallic puppets emerge -- "Trout Troutman," "Paul the Pincher" (a crab claw), and more. Each does a little song and dance if you click, or you can record your own words to put in the puppet's "mouth" before you send it on to your friends.

Drudge declares that the ad "raises eyebrows." But the only evidence of a backlash is on the web site of the Tribble ad agency, which called it "one of the most tasteless ads ever created" and "highly irresponsible and damaging to young children." Subtle the ad is not, and it's true that some will not love it, but -- "damage"? Somebody call Child Welfare!

The creative director of EVB, Lauren Harwell, who was the art director on the project, has not heard of any complaints. "We didn't think it would make people angry, because what comes out of the pants is so silly," she said on the phone from the agency's San Francisco office. The ad won't have a print or TV equivalent -- it's just meant to be emailed around.  "It's geared toward 15 to 20 year old guys," as the "viral component" of the larger campaign.

One wonders what would have happened if Drudge were around in the early 1970s, when the Rolling Stones came out with Sticky Fingers. That album's cover featured a famously bulging jeans crotch shot conceived by Andy Warhol, which included a real live zipper that any child could unzip to reveal a man in nothing but tighty whiteys. That was how kids had to amuse themselves, back in the days before viral Web marketing campaigns.

Meanwhile, is the "Unbutton Your Beast" campaign going over some sort of taste line, do you think? As soon as the puppets appear, at least, it's clear that the ad is in the long pop-culture tradition of "is that a gun in your pants" crotch jokes. The ad isn't even as envelope-pushing as the notorious J.C. Penney ad from Saatchi and Saatchi last spring, featuring two teenagers racing to get their jeans back on. The company refused to run the ad, but it made its way to the Web anyway.

--Maria Russo

Comments

[LALady]

This Levi's site is hilarious. The Tribble site is over-reacting. I'm totally sending this around to my friends. Kudos to Levi's.

[Phid]

Yes, Maria Russo, the ad campaign does go over the line. And trying to rationalize it by saying "it's not as bad as some other campaign" or by pointing to some 70s-era album is rather lame as a justification. Rather than putting Drudge on trial for his headline, why didn't you question what clearly gratuitous sexual references have to do with selling jeans to the general public? And how is this not shameful when it's done to target 15- to 20-year old boys, a demographic which has a hard time controlling itself sexually as it is?

[Maria Russo]

@Phid: Thanks for responding. If these ads were being placed on web sites, where they might be stumbled across out of the blue, I might be more likely to consider them over the taste line. But as a viral campaign these are designed for 15 to 20 year old boys to email to each other as a joke. As far as I can tell there is no violent or menacing or anti-woman undercurrent to them, so I find it hard to muster the outrage. The Internet is a teeming pit of free porn that those same boys can find all too easily, after all. This ad is not a force for good in the world, by any means, but it doesn't seem evil or "shameful" (as you put it) to me. And I do think things like famous old album covers and Mae West jokes are relevant here -- this kind of imagery has a history in our culture that we can't just erase from our collective memory.

[Maxine]

Isn't it fascinating the women are the creators of this stuff ? Both the creator, Lauren Harwell, and the perpetuator Maria Russo......educated by an American (liberal) college system, nourished at the hand of subversive Gloria Steinem (radical) feminism.... and this is what it yields ?

Apparently the trouble with misbehaving men, these days, is the women who promote and encourage it !

A newspaper that ran Gloria Steinem's nonsense anti-Palin rant for over one month------clearly LA Times endorses both Lauren Harwell's talents, and Maria Russo's questionable ethics as Presidential material !

[Quinn Coleman]

As a man, I find this ad campaign puerile, offensive, and disgusting. I suppose that commentators such as Maria think that the majority of people in this country find this sort of thing "harmless" and acceptable. I find it a symptomatic of shameless marketers who think vulgarity equals creativity and clever thinking. Well, take note LA Times. There are MANY of us who think this is garbage, pure and simple. The opinions of writers such as Maria (who is obviously quite talented and articulate in defense of her position) are why I don't often pick up a copy of your paper or subscribe to it.

[Miss Jackson]

Go Levi's. What a silly puritan country we live in where people can't recognize something that is silly, light-hearted, amusing, and well...just plain FUN! Reminded me that I need to buy a pair of new 501 jeans too. I sent a couple of different character greetings to my friends. My friends will laugh I'm sure. I laughed hard when I listened to the character voices. Laughing is good. It's party of enjoying life.

I think all this outrage is pretend outrage. You all love this just as much as I do!

[Jennifer A. Jones]

It's funny. Offensive. Juvenile. Silly. Interactive. Designed to be shared. And, right on with the target demographic.

Basically, it is PERFECT VIRAL.

I blogged and v-logged about it too and I think we can all agree there are a lot worse things out there online. I think it's great!

http://www.speakmediablog.com/

[Igor]

Coo item!

I also loved that viralblog.com .. had not seen it yet, but wet my panties in their Viral Friday ;-)