Why We Wear Boxers

Sometimes advertising does more than bring you a (positive) brand awareness. Advertising has the power to fundamentally change something in the world or show us what exactly has to be changed. Sometimes bigger, moral issues come up. Sometimes smaller stuff. Like why men wear boxer shorts instead of those tight Speedo-looking seventies underwear slips.

In the middle of the eighties, one of first accounts the fresh started BBH won was Levi Strauss Jeans, or Levi’s. Not only did John Hegarty’s team a fantastic job to put an old workmen’s outfit into a young sexy position that still holds its fame; the work they produced also put the new agency on the map of being the new creative hotspot of London (and later on globally). One of the ads, and also one of the most popular ones (next to the poster of the black sheep that later became BBH’s identification mark), was this TV Commercial:

The original script of the TVC had the main character stripping until only wearing a slip. Because that was what the people wore in those days. Especially the young ones, since boxers were considered diapers for the elderly (time changes …). But when the British Advertising Watchdog got their eyes on the script, the forbad the agency and the brand to have a young man only in a slip on national television. So the agency proposed whether they could use boxers. Note that in those days they strongly believed it would decline the appealing effect of the ad because of the just mentioned reason. The Watchdog approved.

Not only did Levi’s sales climb rocket high they had to pull off the ad after a couple of weeks due stock shortage; sales for boxer shorts suddenly set a new record in the country! Suddenly the youth thought differently about wearing boxers and by the late eighties, we suddenly see a shift in male underwear for young people, as of this day still making guys buy boxers instead of Speedo slips. The brand, nor the agency ever meant for this to happen (if only Levi’s sold boxers then as well), yet it did, all thanks to the British conservative system back then.

Rather a Mexican than a Rat

I just finished Sir Ken Robinson’s book “The Element” and because of the hard fact I had to leave a great company to go back to school only to start off again in a few months where I already was; I am in more of a mental war towards the educational systems worldwide, harder than ever before. I know that makes me a phony at this point. But a phony with a proud mom … yes yes.

How I strongly believe society is completely taking the wrong direction when it comes to education and degrees. In less than 30 years more people will graduate from college than ever before throughout the entire history! What will a degree be worth you think? [nothing] And you’re asking yourself why you can’t get a job? Because there’s no point of differentiation anymore. Only climbing up. A job that only required a BA in the past now asks for a MA, a job for a MA a Ph.d or a second MA … and so on. How far can we climb?

People could say to me “You have it easy, you already know what you want”. But I strongly believe everybody should be given more changes to figure out what they really want with their lives; even before choosing which education towards a career to pursue. And that is the fundamental problem society has brought itself into now (in primary and in high school). The problem is not that there’s so much to choose from, people can’t choose anymore. The problem is that there’s so much to choose from, but everybody has been educated since the beginning of kindergarten in the same system, with the same rules, the same priorities, the same focus and the same dogma’s. No wonder people have a hard time figuring out what to do with their lives after all having being conformed towards the same (now profoundly mistaken) direction.

This was a long introduction (I could write, speak and debate about this subject for hours – give me a call), only to share with you a short story that somehow reminded me of this whole school mess. I found it on an old planning agency’s website that is no-more but still likes to have their words floating around the world wide web. You may think it’s a little naive, but you’ll get the point.

The Irony Of The Rat Race

A boat docked in a tiny Mexican village. An American tourist complimented the Mexican fisherman on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took him to catch them.

“Not very long,” answered the Mexican.

“But then, why didn’t you stay out longer and catch more?” asked the American.

The Mexican explained that his small catch was sufficient to meet his needs and those of his family.

The American asked, “But what do you do with the rest of your time?”

“I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children and take a siesta with my wife. In the evenings, I go into the village to see my friends, have a few drinks, play the guitar, and sing a few songs…I have a full life.”

The American interrupted, “I have an MBA from Harvard and I can help you! You should start by fishing longer every day. You can then sell the extra fish you catch. With the extra revenue, you can buy a bigger boat. With the extra money the larger boat will bring, you can buy a second one and a third one and so on until you have an entire fleet of trawlers. Instead of selling your fish to a middle man, you can negotiate directly with the processing plants and maybe even open your own plant. You can then leave this little village and move to Mexico City, Los Angeles, or even New York City! From there you can direct your huge enterprise.”

“How long would that take?” asked the Mexican.

“Twenty, perhaps twenty-five years,” replied the American.

“And after that?”

“Afterwards? That’s when it gets really interesting,” answered the American, laughing. “When your business gets really big, you can start selling stocks and make millions!”

“Millions? Really? And after that?”

“After that you’ll be able to retire, live in a tiny village near the coast, sleep late, play with your children, catch a few fish, take a siesta, and spend your evenings drinking and enjoying your friends!”

I’ll Find my Own Way!

So I blogged about Apple and Siri before and how technology is driving us more and more away from basic human interaction, understanding and communication (click here). Yesterday I stumbled upon this new Siri commercial:

Not only will you get my point that the latest technology (with Apple at the forefront) is making us more lazy, subordinated and unskilled to handle our own problems and questions; I wander if the planning department at Apple / TBWA is doing this on purpose or not? It’s clear that these latest commercials are not relevant anymore for the bigger (older) Apple story. At least not to me. I don’t think we’re talking about the same target audience anymore. I don’t see those people in the ad, relying on their smartphone for every simple, stupid question are the same creative, independent, “think different” people that suited the core idea of Apple already more than a decade ago.

I recently wanted to take a picture of a metro cabin in Shanghai full of people busy on their own iPhone. Then print out that picture with the copy “Think Different” and you would have gotten my point. Then I understood that would be a wrong idea because Apple’s story does not tell you “buy our product and you’ll be different” it actually says “with the benefits of our product you can develop different, creative material” (as in: Apple provides you a tool for you to differentiate yourself in). So I withdrew myself from taking that picture – I suddenly understood even better the bigger picture of Apple. But that bigger picture is NOT in line with Siri commercials like these I’m seeing everywhere nowadays.

Could it be Apple is getting himself into trouble because the gap between their product and communicative messaging is widening? They develop high quality products that are all here to make our life easier, more organized, more controlled. Yet their successful and effective communication strategy has always about “do it yourself – don’t rely on conforming to the status quo, it’s creative people like yourself that make this world a better place.” You see the gap? And software like Siri is only confirming this idea I think. I don’t like it.

Lui Liu

If you happen to be in Shanghai; I strongly advice you to go to the Shanghai Art Museum for the solo exhibition of Lui Liu, open until next week, so hurry up! I stumbled upon it by coincidence as we were looking to go to another exhibition close by but they were wrapping it up already though the flyer said it was still the last day (welcome to China).

LL is a born Chinese who emigrated to Canada in the early nineties. His work brings oriental and western contemporary elements together, often creating mystical settings with an everyday touch. His authentic oil painting technique combined with a modern twitch, invites the viewer into a world beyond rational and habitual.

I love them. Each work, you get sucked into a story you want to know more about. It looks like every character in the painting came to a certain point that made his/her live change and it is exactly that moment that was captured in the painting. You wish to know the past of the person and why it brought him (or more often ‘her’) to this point. And what will happen after.

Discover more about and from the artist on his personal website http://www.luiliu.com/