4/02/2012

Blog #5 Levi's Controversial Ad


source: http://youtu.be/KT16DcHcjRA


This video is Levi’s global ad campaign which tries to describe the life style of youth. The people showed in this video were dressed in Levi’s. They danced, held party, made love, and matched in the streets to against the police.

In my view, the violence scenes like smoke bombs in the street and the mass gathering are not good to the public. It might induce the youths, for example, college students, to act the same way as the youth did in the video. It will lead to crimes and violence in the real life. It has negative social impact about the mass gathering and matching.

The advertisers might say they were trying to describe the image of the young people. These kinds of people are lively and not likely to listen to the elders. It is common to describe the target customers’ life in the ads. But this ad is crossing the line and controversial. Many people post negative comments about this ad. Finally Lev’s announced it temporarily postponed the campaign, but this video is still on the YouTube and has hits of 3 million.
The data told us the ad is popular. The ad is affective, though it is inappropriate to talk about the young rebel period in this way.

10 comments:

  1. Yes, this commercial shows many dark sides of the rebellious adolescent. It sent out the wrong message to youth. Fortunately, there is still someting good. "Your life is your life. there are ways out. it may not be much light but it beats the darkness." it is optimistic and encouraging.

    YAN LI

    ReplyDelete
  2. Young teenages are curious about the world. When they saw sexy picture and smoke bombs, they are attracted by new things, which it not good for their healthy growth. These fashion ads should not always contain sexy pictures.----XU ZHANG

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous4/06/2012

    I will have to agree to Yan Li when it comes to expressing the optimism and encouragement of youth to live life opposite what their violent surroundings would encourage. I think this type of ad may take some thinking to fully appreciate its message, as opposed to just seeing the smoke bombs...

    ARinaldi

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous4/06/2012

    It is highly possible that the youth shown marching against the police were actually doing it for the right cause. There is a difference between being a rebel and being right. The ad is dark but also talks about the light beating the darkness, so I don't think that it only showcases negative vibes.

    Manish B

    ReplyDelete
  5. Obviously, this advertisement wants to show that Levi's is a brand that Youngers can do whatever they want and just go forth. This is an incorrect indication for the youngers. Although youngers should have the freedom to do what they like, but they also need some restriction to keep them safe. For example, going against the police shown in the ad is totally a wrong thing for the youngers. So when advertisers design their ads, they need to consider the safety issues while wanting to attracting their customers. --Chenlu Lou

    ReplyDelete
  6. Personally, I like this commerical very much.The voiceover and music inspire me and give me a kind of warm power. However I think the frames in this Ad is bad because they are run counter to the main idea and the God's wish. May be it needs give more positive scenes to show the lights in our life. Levi's may found that problem and then delete some frames when it was showed in Chinawith Chinese . Besides, I found this ad caused debates online about the God,Christian and Atheist. Also, company should be cautious when thier commerical want to talk about these kind of topic.
    ----Zhilin Yang

    ReplyDelete
  7. What I read from this commercial is that the young should do whatever they think is right, and insist on their own ideas. However, just as Zhilin say, too much scenes about sex, punk,and anti-government may instil negative ideas into teenagers'mind. From my viewpoint, the idea that this commerical want to deliver is good, but should be in a more appropriate way.

    ----Shiqi Tao

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I agree with Shiqi. In my mind, the idea of this ad is good that it wants to convey the information that young people should master their own life. But it failed to express this idea in a proper way. A lot of negative lifestyle scenes depicted in this ad will cause bad influence on young people, especially some teenage who have not built up the correct values and views on life. If in this TV ad, more positive scenes are included, this will be a good ad.

      Kaiyu Xiong

      Delete
    2. I think that the ad probably needs to go too far in order to be memorable and set itself apart.

      E Duderewicz

      Delete
  8. This ad gave me a strong impression of sex and violence. It was supposed to deliver the massage of that youth means freedom, braking the constraints. Although this massage could be identified from the ad, the sex, smoke, and violence pictures in the ad did give the young people bad influence, which may definitely change their value about the world. Young people would imitate and follow the behaviors in the ad, which was not supposed to happen. In my point of view, the message from the ad was fine, but the way how it delivered to audience should be more appropriate.


    Yisa Zhou

    ReplyDelete