John Kitt
3/25/13
Describing my Advertisement
This is a Levi jeans picture ad. The first thing is the writing in the middle. There are four,
and I will call them, lines of words. The top line says, “Everybody’s Work”, and is arched. It
looks like a rainbow or the top of a lowercase “n”. This is the largest wording of the four lines
and is kind of the umbrella for the others. The next line says, “Is Equally”, and is the smallest of
the groupings of words. The words are italicized and are more of the center of the picture. The
third line says, “Important”. This word has the biggest text size of the bunch. It acts as the base
for the words above and completes the phrase, “Everyone’s work is equally important”. This
entire phrase’s text is white in color and has a very plain, bold font. Under this phrase is the
Levi’s logo and under that it says, “Go forth”. The logo is solid red but, has the word “Levi’s”
see through in the middle. Also, the “Go forth” phrase is very small and italicized with white
font. The final text in the picture is the website “Levi.com” in the upper right hand corner of the
picture.
My next focal point will be the three people in this ad. They are all standing in the
middle, with the person in the middle having their arms around the other two. There are two men
and one woman; one man seems younger, maybe a teen, and the other is an older man. The first
man on the left is the teen. He is white, has black hair, and is the second tallest of the group. He
is wearing a white t-shirt; with a short sleeve jean jacket over it. I should also note that the t-shirt
sleeves are rolled over the jean jacket sleeves. Also, he is wearing jeans that are faded around the
knee and boots. The man in the middle is the tallest, oldest, darkest, and the minority of the
group. He has dark hair and is wearing a long sleeve, button down shirt. This shirt is tucked in
into his jeans. His jeans are held up by a belt with a belt buckle with an eagle on it. This man also
is wearing boots. The final person in the picture is the woman on the right. She is white and has
long blonde hair. She has on a white shirt that is tucked in, with a long sleeve jacket over it. The
jacket is cut short, which shows the t-shirt underneath it. She also is wearing jeans that are held
up with a belt and boots.
These people are standing out front of an old, broken down house. The young man on the
left is leaning up against a support post. The house behind them has two windows and a door in
which we can see. The window on the left is broken on the bottom and the glass is scattered
around on the ground. The top part of the window you can see the reflection of the house across
the street. The middle window is not broken and is covered on the inside by a sheet or blind. On
the right is the wooden door with a diamond shaped window on it. There is also the spring that
pulls the screen door back hanging on the wall but, there is no screen door. The rest of the front
of the house has plain white siding. Also, there is a small sign next to the door that says, “S14”.
Finally, in the bottom of the ad there are some weeds peeking up into the picture. The last thing
to note about this ad is the entire thing is set in a gray/white filter.
John Kitt
3/13/13
Interpretation of My Advertisement
I would interpret this ad as aiming to show that the company, Levi’s, supports the
equality of not only men and women, but also races and age as well. I think they support equality
of men and women because they are showing the woman standing next to the men. Not only are
they standing next to each other, they have their arms around each other. This is proving that she
is as equally as important in the ad campaign as the men. They didn’t hide her in the back, or
show her in the middle with just the jeans on; they had her dress just like the men. In any other
ad, for instance in a Victoria Secrets ad, they would have shown the woman dressed just in the
lingerie. Thus proving she can only and instantly be “sexy” in this company’s lingerie. This also
applies for the man as well. The producer didn’t have the man doing some ridiculous task in the
jeans; proving only the jeans could help him complete the task. An example here would be in an
Under Armor commercial, where the man wearing the newest cleats can help him break through
buildings and jump over cars. I think this shows that the ad is aiming to sell the jeans because
they want to please both genders equally. That then jeans are not means to make you the sexiest
or toughest person in your race, but to be real comfortable jeans.
A smaller, but equally as important, point this ad is aiming to support is that all ages are
equal too. Now they are not saying that a nine year old should work in a factory or that a twentyone year old should be commander and chief. I think they are saying that, at the appropriate age
and appropriate work environment, the younger generation should be valuable equally as
someone older. Now I understand the age old saying that, “with age comes wisdom”, and the ad
is not apposing that. The ad is saying that the youth should have an equal; we can call it, playing
field when it comes to the work force. If two people, man or woman, were both equally qualified
to do a job then the younger one should not be looked down on because he might not have as
much experience. Also, this applies for the elder as well. Just because some hot shot, fresh out
the academy comes in with the same scores as someone who has been on the force for a while
and is older, that they should be equally qualified for a chief position. In this case, the elder
should get the job because he is more experienced. So over all I think this ad says something
about both sides of the age spectrum.
The biggest purpose this ad, to me, is trying to prove is that all races are equal. This
means that not one race’s work is more valuable then another. Here is my argument; over the
past hundred years men’s work has been more valued then women and teens. What kind of work
you may ask; and in my view, the more important work. I mean what society portrays as an
important job. A powerful position in the military, a CEO of a very prestige’s company, and the
ultimate spot in the white house, sitting at the desk in the oval office; these are all jobs that hold
the most power in our country. All of these are held by men. Now I am not suggesting that
wearing these jeans will make you president, and neither is Levi, but the point they are trying to
make is that anyone could hold these positions of power. Also, Hispanic men have been much
unappreciated for their work here as well. This ad shows that this company supports the equality
of all genders across the work force. Like stated in the previous paragraph, the ad does not show
a man performing a task that a woman or a teen couldn’t because, the man is wearing the jeans.
The ad is also not aiming to promote the cheap labor that America has stereotyped Hispanics to
do. It says, to me, that everybody’s labor is equal no matter the race, age, or gender.
John Kitt
3/28/13
Part 3
For the Levi advertisement that I choose, to me, sends many messages towards the
buyers. “Buy our jeans” or “Our jeans are the best”, are some of the obvious ones. But how
about, “All genders are equal” or “Everyone’s work is equal”. In an everyday modern ad, people
are used as puppets for how we should look and act. Women have been used the most in our
society to promote messages. The biggest messages they try to promote deal with something
called, as Naomi Wolf presents it in her book called, “The Beauty Myth”.
In Naomi’s book she states that, “The beauty myth is always actually prescribing
behavior and not appearance” (Wolf, 14). She is trying to say that women have constant
pressure from society to look this certain way. To use make-up, wear certain dresses, or get
plastic surgeries; and if they do all of this they will obtain the beauty that is unanimously sought
after. Like discussed in class, women’s magazines amount to the biggest pressure provider when
it comes to the beauty myth. The Cosmopolitan, for example, is filled with articles on how to
change their bodies or how to please a man. Women depend on these types of ads because they
get into their heads that they need to become this desirable woman.
In the Levi ad it promotes the complete opposite. As I previously stated, the woman,
plain and simple, is not dressed like a woman would be on the cover of Cosmopolitan. She is
dressed responsibly and covers all her skin. She is helping sell the ad by wearing the jeans and
not showing off her body. In a society were woman are expected to wear as little clothes possible
to be attractive; Levi’s is saying women do not. Also, that their work is equal too. That woman
can wear comfortable clothes at work and their work still is equal. Also, that woman’s work in
general is equally valued as men. If this kind message were to be accepted in today’s society it
could mean for women to get jobs were they never did before. For example, like stated in part 2,
we could have our first woman president.
In class we also read Social Construction of Gender, by Judith Lorber. She says that,
“Without the deliberate use of gendered clothing, hairstyles, jewelry, and cosmetics, women and
men would look far more alike” (Lorber, 44). This describes my ad, to me, almost perfectly for
men. In every other ad they would show the man dominant over the woman (like the ad you
showed us in class). For this ad , they show all parties, male or female, at an equal level. This
also runs parallel to the video that was shown in class called Tough Guise. Since I can remember,
men are also always pressured by society to become this tough, powerful man and not a punk, or
a bitch. This ad promotes the opposite by showing men can look good and still be equal with
women. Finally, if this were to happen then some of the biggest social walls that stand in
between males and females, in society, would crumble. We could be on our way to equality for
both man and women.
Works Cited
Lorber, Judith. “Night to His Day: The Social Construction of Gender.” Paradoxes of Gender.
New Haven: Yale U.P., 1994. Print.
Wolf, Naomi. The Beauty Myth. New York: William Morrow and Company, 1991. Print.