{"id":85934,"date":"2015-05-20T13:19:23","date_gmt":"2015-05-20T17:19:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=85934"},"modified":"2015-05-20T13:21:26","modified_gmt":"2015-05-20T17:21:26","slug":"get-your-kicks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/20\/get-your-kicks\/","title":{"rendered":"Get Your Kicks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/koMmMDvYNvk?rel=0\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>I have often said that I wish I had invented blue jeans: the most spectacular, the most practical, the most relaxed and nonchalant. They have expression, modesty, sex appeal, simplicity\u2014all I hope for in my clothes. \u2015Yves Saint Laurent<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>This late seventies Levi\u2019s commercial is no \u201cI\u2019d Like to Teach the World to Sing.\u201d Let\u2019s just get that out there right now\u2014because after Sunday\u2019s <em>Mad Men<\/em> finale, watercoolers across the nation have had that iconic Coke jingle sung around them. The Levi\u2019s campaign may suffer by comparison, though it is, like the Coke jingle, a classic McCann Erickson Me-Decade production, designed to make iconic American brands appeal to happening youth. The anniversary of Levi Strauss\u2019s patent grant seems like a good excuse to celebrate it. <!--more--><\/p>\n<p>First of all, it\u2019s directed by Adrian Lyne, and while the vibe may be more <em>Flashdance<\/em> than <em>9\u00bd Weeks, <\/em>there\u2019s both serious craft and serious sex at work in this ad. By modern standards, it\u2019s downright racy: it features law breaking, police brutality (okay, that\u2019s ambiguous), groupies, casual pickups, and a distinct lack of brassieres. All in a Levi\u2019s ad! Into the bargain, we get snapshots of an America that was already vanishing at the time of the bicentennial, for good and ill. Plus, it does its work in imparting the desire to consume: those high-rise jeans look <em>incredible<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>But if there\u2019s one thing that really dates the ad, it\u2019s the fact that the filmmakers make no attempt whatsoever to make the jeans look comfortable. In those scenes where the girls are running\u2014to catch a bus or hitch a ride\u2014their movements are awkward and constricted. They run like the kid in gym class who couldn\u2019t run like a normal human being. Granted, in this case, it\u2019s clearly because of skin-tight, give-free flared denim pants and the mile-high platforms who love them.<\/p>\n<p>Nowadays, our conception of <em>American freedom<\/em>\u2014for women as well as men\u2014is tied up with movement. Well, at least in ads. There\u2019s a fiction at work that you can look perfect without sweating, or the converse. Back then, the message was different: get your kicks\u2014but not high ones.<\/p>\n<p><em>Sadie Stein is contributing editor of <\/em>The Paris Review<em>, and the <\/em>Daily<em>\u2019s correspondent.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have often said that I wish I had invented blue jeans: the most spectacular, the most practical, the most relaxed and nonchalant. They have expression, modesty, sex appeal, simplicity\u2014all I hope for in my clothes. \u2015Yves Saint Laurent This late seventies Levi\u2019s commercial is no \u201cI\u2019d Like to Teach the World to Sing.\u201d Let\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13115],"tags":[18195,14238,1642,18193,18192,18191,676,18194],"class_list":["post-85934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-our-daily-correspondent","tag-adrian-lyne","tag-advertisements","tag-commercials","tag-denim","tag-jeans","tag-levis","tag-mad-men","tag-mccann-erickson"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.4 (Yoast SEO v25.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Levi Strauss\u2019s Iconic &#039;70s Ad<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"May 20, 2015 \u2013 I have often said that I wish I had invented blue jeans: the most spectacular, the most practical, the most relaxed and nonchalant. 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They have expression,\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/20\/get-your-kicks\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-05-20T17:19:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-05-20T17:21:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-1.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sadie Stein\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sadie Stein\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/20\/get-your-kicks\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/20\/get-your-kicks\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Sadie Stein\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a1aef49f81bfc540a37e03590f3bb4d9\"},\"headline\":\"Get Your Kicks\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-05-20T17:19:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-05-20T17:21:26+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/20\/get-your-kicks\/\"},\"wordCount\":392,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Adrian Lyne\",\"advertisements\",\"commercials\",\"denim\",\"jeans\",\"Levi's\",\"Mad Men\",\"McCann Erickson\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Our Daily Correspondent\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/20\/get-your-kicks\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/20\/get-your-kicks\/\",\"name\":\"Levi Strauss\u2019s Iconic &#039;70s Ad\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-05-20T17:19:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-05-20T17:21:26+00:00\",\"description\":\"May 20, 2015 \u2013 I have often said that I wish I had invented blue jeans: the most spectacular, the most practical, the most relaxed and nonchalant. 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