WHERE SUCCESSFUL ADVERTISING MEETS LGBT EQUALITY

Levi Strauss & Co., Black Dress

Members:

Three guys at a party near the buffet table are talking about golf -- incongruously dressed in black dresses (along with black socks and dress shoes).

Then one of them says to the other, "Hey Shawn, who's that dancing with your wife?" Out on the dance floor, a woman in a pink dress is spinning and happily dancing with a fellow. "That's Henderson," he says with no malice.

Henderson is wearing a gray shirt, tie and pants -- the rest of the men are also wearing variations of black dresses in a sort of "Twilight Zone" altered reality.

Then, as Henderson picks up the other guy's wife for a dramatic spin, the husband takes no notice, simply saying in awed inspiration, "Nice pants."

The announcer then says, "Finally guys have an answer to the little black dress."

Broke for the first time during the Super Bowl, this spot offers a neutral handling of the (Straight) Dude Looks Like a Lady concept, playing on the stereotyped irony of straight men's inability to be creative dressers by putting them all in ill-fitting black dresses. It also brings the brand away from its last ad that played on homophobia when a young man meets his girlfriend's parents and a socked foot that plays with him under the table could be anyone, including the father.

Christopher Guest, who starred in "Best in Show" and was a member of the band in "This is Spinal Tap," directed the ad.

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User Comments
B
Great commercial. What's interesting about it is the fact that it's not really gay. It says to me nobody should judge you by the way you look. Bravo.

Andrea James
Kinda funny. Great tagline.

GQ
I loved this commercial! I was really disappointed when Dockers pulled it from their web site. I emailed Dockers about it, but they had no comment.