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Creek: the best Levi's ad?
Posted by Creative Review, 14 June 2011, 11:19 Permalink Comments (18)

The current issue of CR includes a lengthy interview with Sir John Hegarty and a look back at his agency's work including, of course, its noted campaign for Levi's. In the piece Hegarty chooses Creek as his favourite Levi's spot: what's yours?

Bartle Bogle Hegarty will forever be associated with Levi's. Its 1985 Laundrette commercial, where young model Nick Kamen famously stripped down to his boxer shorts to wash his beloved jeans, not only sparked enormous sales of 501s but made an old-fashioned form of underwear popular again, sending the once-ubiquitous Y-fronts towards a fashion demise from which they have never recovered. It even changed the music industry as labels realised the potential for advertising soundtracks to shif their artists' back catalogues.
But, out of all the spots BBH created for Levi's until it resigned the account last year, it's 1994's Creek that is Hegarty's favourite.
Creek, 1994. Art director: John Gorse, Copywriter: Nick Worthington. Director: Vaughn & Anthea
Here's a few of ours:
Bath from the original 50s-inspired campaign (1986)
Refrigerator, 1988
Pool Hall, 1991
Swimmer, from 1992, directed by Tarsem (which references the 1968 Burt Lancaster film The Swimmer). Creatives: Larry Barker and Rooney Carruthers
Campfire from 1993
Drugstore, 1995, shot by Michel Gondry. Copywriter: Nick Worthington. Art director: John Gorse
The first animated Levi's spot, Claymation, from 1995, directed by Deiniol Morris and Michael Mort.
199, Flat Eric, directed by Quentin Dupieux. Creatives: Tony Davidson and Kim Papworth.
Twisted, directed by Frank Budgen, 2002. Copywriter: Mark Hunter. Art director: Tony McTeer.
Odyssey, Jonathan Glazer, 2002. Art director Gavin Lester, copywriter Antony Goldstein
Have we missed your favourite out?

If you'd like to read our Hegarty feature, it's in the June issue of CR, on newsstands now.
If you would like to buy this issue and are based in the UK, you can search for your nearest stockist here. Based outside the UK? Simply call +44(0)207 292 3703 to find your nearest stockist. Better yet, subscribe to CR for a year here and save yourself almost 30%.

18 Comments
our best is Drugstore, definitely
2011-06-14 12:33:54
Still impressed by the last one: Freedom, like the first time I saw it, at the movies.
2011-06-14 14:11:08
Freedome to move - no doubt
2011-06-14 14:15:16
Budgen's Twisted is brilliant for the dark references - the twisted toddler, the hand throwing - a great jean too, that I always wanted, but never owned :(
2011-06-14 14:29:19
Odyssey!!!!
2011-06-14 16:13:51
All of them... and then there's Flat Eric for it's own bit of twisted genius surely
2011-06-14 22:01:39
Always liked how understated this one was http://youtu.be/_Y7T3PB7IRU
2011-06-14 22:41:14
Drugstore, great ad. Notable also for it's brilliant use of Biosphere's 'Novelty Waves' (from the Patashnik album on R&S).
-
2011-06-15 09:01:35
Yeah, Freedom to move was a big hit but I guess Mr Bombastic will be always in my mind.
2011-06-15 13:20:08
Well, Twisted was also massive!
2011-06-15 13:22:46
Flat Eric was great!
Always remembered this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vL6Tj9kb3U
2011-06-15 18:10:29
Unfortunately I am old enough to remember when The Creek add came on TV!! I thought the music for it was so perfect that as soon as the add was finished I grabbed the electric guits and tried to play it,
2011-06-16 01:14:43
Loved the Drugstore ad, especially for it's music. Before the internet it was virtually impossible to find out what the track was called so I remember spending ages trawling round record shops trying to get hold of it.
2011-06-16 13:17:10
Drugstore without a doubt. Brilliant edit enhanced by the awesome Biosphere (i too remember spending far too long going through music shops in Coventry looking for this in the pre-internet days)
2011-06-16 14:58:23
You've missed the parody ad for Carling Black Label of Launderette
2011-06-16 15:30:58
Drugstore. Stunning!
2011-06-20 23:30:20
There are quite a few older animated Levis ads, including this acid-inspired one from the 70s:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TRgokZLIwA
2011-06-27 08:13:36
The flat eric ads and the spaceman ads where the first adverts I remember taking note of.
2011-07-14 22:17:11
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