DESIGNER label jeans' manufacturers are preparing to do battle for the multi million dollar denim market, and they're using raunchy television advertising as their front line of assault. Levi's and Lee Jeans this week unveiled their latest TV commercials.
Both companies are hyping their garments' sex content and proudly boasting that their advertisements have been "banned" by the networks.
The new Levi's advertisement features a 22 year old model, Ms Anna Cristina, stripping down to her underwear in a men's toilet, watched closely by a "blind".
The commercial will not be shown RTE until after 9 p.m., and the company is making a meal of the fact that the Irish Film Censor has deemed it unsuitable for an under 18 audience.
The washroom commercial follows Levi's hugely successful Space Girl advertisement, which featured teenage Russian model, Ms Kristina Semenovskaia, and inspired the number one hit single by Babylon Zoo. The advertisement is part of a £2 million campaign which Levi's is pursuing in an effort to stay at the top of the Irish jeans market. The company now claims to outsell its nearest rival in Ireland by two to one. Levi's competitors are now making a serious attempt to challenge the supremacy of the Levi's brand.
Lee Jeans has launched two new television advertisements, one of which also features a young model stripping to her underwear. Both commercials will both be premiered on RTE tonight after 9 p.m.
Also throwing its hat in the ring is Wrangler Jeans, now acknowledged as the number two brand in Ireland, whose new advertisements will be broadcast on February 26th.
However, you won't have to wait until 9 p.m. to watch them, since the emphasis is more on the rugged than the raunchy.
What all three campaigns have in common is a classic American identity, with prairies, gas stations and boxcars featuring heavily in widescreen western settings.
In their battle for the hearts, minds band backsides of Ireland's youth, the jeanswear companies are selling sex, rebellion and a romantic image of recent American history.
Since its origins as the workwear of American miners over 100 years ago, the humble pair of denim jeans has changed very little; what's changed is the way jeans are marketed and promoted, and how much the companies spend on advertising.
Both Lee and Wrangler are investing £12.6 million in their 1996 European campaigns. Levi's, meanwhile plans to spend around £20 million to stay ahead of fast growing brands like Pepe and Diesel.
With one in two adult males and one in four women buying at least one pair of jeans every year, the demand for denim doesn't appear to be fading.
The new raunchy advertisements are just another bare checked effort to get our undivided attention, and the more daring the images on screen, the less we notice that the product remains essentially the same.
