• by Barbara Lippert , Columnist, October 1, 2024

It was done very stealthily, with teasers aplenty.

Still, it was only a matter of time before Beyonce blew the doors off the joint, super-starring in a Levi’s ad campaign.

After all, her song, “Levii’s Jeans,” a sticky track (with an extra “i” in the name, along with all the songs on her “Cowboy Carter” album) is already a hit.

So is the ambitious, acclaimed CC album, which in the big picture redefines the American West and the role of people of color in it, and in the smaller one reintroduces “Cowboy Core” as an American fashion aesthetic.

And speaking of double iis, the work is part of Levi’s “Reiimagine” campaign, giving a second, or double, life to its most remarkable ads from the ‘80s and ‘90s.

Truly, Queen Bey’s commercial is every bit as shocking, charming and provocative as “Launderette,” the 1985 British original that the redo turns on its head. 

That’s saying something, because at the time, “Launderette” rocked both the pop cultural world and Levi’s then-shrinking retail business, elevating jeans sales for the year by 800%. (Not a typo.) 

Even before this campaign -- created in partnership with TBWA\Chiat\Day LA and produced by de la revoluion/PRETTYBIRD -- broke, the superstar had already worked her magic for the 170-year-old brand. Last March, the single release of “Levii’s Jeans” drove an almost 20% surge in Levi’s store visits compared to prior years, according to Pass By, a retail report.

If you recall, the original was set some time in the 1950s or early 1960s, with a devastatingly cool James Dean type (Nick Kamen) entering a “launderette.”  The place is filled with bored and weary people waiting for their washing cycles to finish.

To the toe-tapping music of “I Heard it Through the Grapevine,” (which put the song back on the charts) the model enters the place without carrying the unglamorous weight of a laundry bag. He heads for a machine, doffing his T-shirt. And as the camera pans around his face, ripped torso, and bottom, he slips off his belt, unbuttons his 501s, and strips down to white boxers and socks.

He puts the clothes in after the soap, nuggets of which tumble into the drum of the washer like rocks.

Then, as the object of sighs from women and stares from men, he slinks off to a chair to wait. The payoff?  A close-up of the label of his red tab indigo jeans. He’s doing as told: the jeans are “shrink-to-fit.” (A popular style at the time, before the word “shrinkage” came into the lexicon.)

This sort of blatant male objectification in ads had started in the early ‘80s with Calvin Klein underwear campaigns, some on giant billboards.

They focused frontally on the bodies of muscley male models, shot by Bruce Weber.

They mainstreamed, and made commonplace, imagery previously considered homoerotic. Suddenly, for the male or female viewer, it was OK to read into it what you wanted, as equal opportunity enjoyment.

By then, many women were sick of being sexually objectified in ads and were happy for the switch.

As a feminist, (she once put the word on stage in bright lights as she shimmied in front of it in a bustier) Bey brings a more layered, complicated, sexually seeking approach to the word.

As she says in the press release, “I am honored to work with Levi’s^® to create quintessential American iconography. Denim on denim has often been seen through a male lens, so this reimagining campaign, which celebrates the iconic female perspective, is important to me. I look forward to exploring innovative ways for our visions to align in empowering women and honoring their strength.”

Of course, her 30-second commercial, seductively directed by her longtime collaborator, filmmaker Melina Matsoukas,and cinematographer Marcell Révset, is set to the track of “Levii’s Jeans.”  In it, she sings:

"You call me pretty little thing
And I love to turn him on
Boy, I'll let you be my Levi's jeans
So you can hug that ass all day long.”  

The video opens on a beautifully framed bootie -- way superior to the bums of mere mortals -- really selling the hell out of the tight-fitting Levi’s ’90 Women’s 501 Jeans.

This is also known as Beyonce entering an old-timey American laundromat.

She’s carrying a little silver bucket while also sporting a cropped white Levi’s T-shirt and a denim cowboy hat. She opens a washing machine, throws in some diamonds (huh?) from the bucket, before unbuttoning her 501s, stripping down to a complete set of Levi’s undies, and throwing her jeans into the machine.

She takes a plastic seat and waits, reading a newspaper.

In a much cleverer ending, we get a closeup of the paper’s front page. It reads, “Pool Shark Hustles Town.”  So that’s it -- she’s  LAUNDERING diamonds from her winnings!

Bey also has a relationship with diamonds, having starred in past Tiffany’s ads.  All in all, campaign shows the star’s involvement in every bit of the business.

This spot is just the start of the Beyonce-Levi’s collab, and I can’t wait to see the next.

In the meantime, though, maybe Beyonce can have a word with the denim retailer. It's calling the clothing line for females “Women’s Jeans,” while the men’s are merely Levi’s.