Levi Strauss & Co., Motorcycle Man
A preppy guy walks into an alley, where he discovers the motorcycle of his dreams. He fondles it, gets on top as he fantasizes starting it and-- breaks the mirror off.
His arm is then grabbed by the angry, muscular owner, who looks like he's stepped right out of New York's gay ghetto, Chelsea. The scowling owner gives him a look below the belt and barks, "Nice pants."
The closing shot shows the motorcycle pulling away with the camera beneath the V of the now-naked legs of the prep, whose pants have been taken by the biker.
Without the one line in this commercial, more people would be drawing sexual conclusions about why the first guy was left naked. There's a lot of sexual stuff going on in this ad, but no women. The idolification of the motorcycle, the gay-clone look of the bike's owner, the stolen pants and the sexual joke shot at the end combine to make this long-running ad homoerotic.
Fashion advertisers tend to push the envelope more and challenge people, to create an image. Though based in San Francisco and acknowledging of it gay employees through domestic partnership benefits, Levi is still more often corporately safe as an advertiser.
Levi began a significant gay marketing effort somewhat belatedly.
The denim manufacturer expanded its gay marketing efforts in November 1998, about the same time as its TV ad with a gay teen. Levi created its first gay-specific advertising behind the Dockers brand as an insert to OUT magazine. It featured profiles of ten openly gay heroes, featuring people like James Dale, whose case against the New Jersey Boy Scouts went to the US Supreme Court.
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