Dualité

I was perusing Business Week‘s site and found this brilliant YouTube of an old Levi’s commercial made in the 1970′s.

Granted that the colors and style are dated, but the approach and conceptualization of the commercial I find is pretty relevant to today. I think the fashion industry is in dire need of a “stranger” to come and breathe life back into our wardrobe. Sure, fashion editors spew this mantra every season, but every so-called golden designer is yesterday’s news  within 2 weeks of being announced.

Plus, when was the last time you’ve seen a memorable fashion commercial made by neither by Gap or Chanel? I don’t particularly recall any significant tv air time for fashion brands anymore. Perhaps because they are too costly to produce, considering Chanel No. 5 with Nicole Kidman cost a whopping £18million ($25 million) to produce in 2004. Too many brands rely too much on celebrity influence to sell their products when they could invest those millions into smart ad agencies and come up with a spectacular concept. If beer and sports companies can come up with the most original works during the Super Bowl, you would think fashion (who needs to be the best at – well, everything) would come up with the best ideas for their air time.

Fashion is drowning by clinging onto magazine ads, their life support needs to extend beyond magazine pages and into cyberspace and back to the tv airwaves. Mere runway shows won’t do, we want to be excited again by fashion. Calvin Klein ads begone! We want something fresh, new and exciting! This is a perfect time to bring back significant, original fashion commercials.