COMMERCIAL BREAKS
Nick Kamen taking his clothes off in a launderette. It’s a simple concept which left many of 1985’s TV viewers actively looking forward to the commercial break. But that famous Levi’s 501 ad didn’t just boost sales of shrink-to-fit jeans, and presumably pure white boxer shorts, too. It signalled the arrival of a hit factory almost as prolific as Stock Aitken Waterman’s.
Just two years after his shocking death, soul legend Marvin Gaye posthumously added to his tally of Top 10 singles having provided the soundtrack for the hunk’s memorable strip routine. I Heard It Through The Grapevine might not have replicated the chart-topping success of its original 1969 release, but its No.8 peak still prompted record labels to further explore the hit-making potential of the TV advert.
Of course, Gaye’s soul classic wasn’t the first track to benefit from being beamed into millions of viewers’ homes in between the likes of The Benny Hill Show and This Is Your Life. In 1971, squeaky clean vocal harmony outfit The New Seekers scored a No.1 with I’d Like To Teach The World To Sing, an adapted version of a jingle featured on a hippie-dippie promo for Coca-Cola.
But this curious mix of peace, love and commercialism didn’t exactly open the floodgates. In fact, it was a further five years before another artist would noticeably gain from TV ad exposure – David Dundas’ jaunty little number Jeans On reached No.3 after originally being conceived as a ditty for Brutus Jeans.
However, in the wake of another jeanswear company’s mid-1980s rebranding, the humble ad break became an unlikely hit machine. And by rigidly sticking to their early winning formula, Levi’s would be responsible for the majority of these chart crossovers.
Months after launching Kamen to instant fame, Levi’s plucked another male model from obscurity to show off their muscles and get into a bath with their pre-shrunk 501s. Sadly for the man in question, James Mardle, his public exhibitionism didn’t lead to a brief pop career of his own or any future dalliances with Madonna. And yet his musical accompaniment went six places better than Kamen’s.