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What the f&!@ were they thinking?: Levi 501

- October 2, 2008 - by , in blog, marketing, with 9 comments -

It’s the hope of all marketers that we create a great campaign that inspires positive word of mouth.  Viral is what we dream of in creating content or launching new...

It’s the hope of all marketers that we create a great campaign that inspires positive word of mouth.  Viral is what we dream of in creating content or launching new outreach.

But why on earth Levi thought this was a good strategy is beyond me?  Reaction: Stunned and strongly repulsed from their brand comes to mind.

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Rox, nothing to do with your age at all! Shannon, it's disturbing that this has sexual overtones with those particular graphics and "monsters" to get the point across. Just yeah, not working.Anji, yeah I'm sure that's not the type of viral they were imagining.

Exactly!They made people not want to wear their jeans that are already in their closet!

yeah, that is really gross. makes me think of something viral alright, but not in the way they were hoping, i'm sure. yuck!

I can't imagine this working for anyone. Doesn't make me want to buy jeans, wear jeans or feed my mogwai after midnight. I'm sorry, but Paul the Pincher is the stuff of nightmares. Yuck.

I am so glad to discover this has nothing to do with my age! (55) I find it "ew yucky gross" too.

I think it's tacky and makes me not want to wear my button-fly levis anymore...

Ed, I may have blogged about it but there are no links to Levi in this post for a reason. I don't want to give them any kind of link love, but I am flabbergasted enough that I want to understand why they thought is appropriate. Definitely lost a lot of respect with me. I imagine they wanted to reach their male demographic, It's just not well done. (Major understatement.) So far, my male friends have had the same WTF reaction. Major FAIL!

I totally agree. Unfortunately, this seems to be the latest trend in "viral marketing". Do something that's ridiculously controversial to build up Google juice. Hey! It got you to write about it. While I'm not sure if this falls into that category, it's certainly more than a unusual and grotesque effort on the part of a long standing and respected brand, that just lost a great deal of their respect. People are going to write AND link to it.