Drudge readers this morning were greeted with news of controversy over a viral web ad called “Unbutton Your Beast” released last night by ad agency EVB for Levi’s. It’s part of the “Unbutton Yourself” campaign, and it features the crotch of a pair of buttoned Levi’s, at first displaying a substantial bulge that dances around behind the zipper. A few seconds later, one of several tricked-out, phallic puppets emerge — “Trout Troutman,” “Paul the Pincher” (a crab claw), and more. Each does a little song and dance if you click, or you can record your own words to put in the puppet’s “mouth” before you send it on to your friends.
Drudge declares that the ad “raises eyebrows.” But the only evidence of a backlash is on the web site of the Tribble ad agency, which called it “one of the most tasteless ads ever created” and “highly irresponsible and damaging to young children.” Subtle the ad is not, and it’s true that some will not love it, but — “damage”? Somebody call Child Welfare!
The creative director of EVB, Lauren Harwell, who was the art director on the project, has not heard of any complaints. “We didn’t think it would make people angry, because what comes out of the pants is so silly,” she said on the phone from the agency’s San Francisco office. The ad won’t have a print or TV equivalent — it’s just meant to be emailed around. “It’s geared toward 15 to 20 year old guys,” as the “viral component” of the larger campaign.
One wonders what would have happened if Drudge were around in the early 1970s, when the Rolling Stones came out with Sticky Fingers. That album’s cover featured a famously bulging jeans crotch shot conceived by Andy Warhol, which included a real live zipper that any child could unzip to reveal a man in nothing but tighty whiteys. That was how kids had to amuse themselves, back in the days before viral Web marketing campaigns.
Meanwhile, is the “Unbutton Your Beast” campaign going over some sort of taste line, do you think? As soon as the puppets appear, at least, it’s clear that the ad is in the long pop-culture tradition of “is that a gun in your pants” crotch jokes. The ad isn’t even as envelope-pushing as the notorious J.C. Penney ad from Saatchi and Saatchi last spring, featuring two teenagers racing to get their jeans back on. The company refused to run the ad, but it made its way to the Web anyway.
