‘It was a piece of magic’: How Levi’s ‘Laundrette’ ad led to an 800% sales boost

Levi’s ‘Launderette’ ad launched in the UK on Boxing Day, 1985. From its opening shots, where the door of a launderette in small-town America opens in sync with the unmistakable bass line of ‘I Heard it Through the Grapevine’, to the last, where the protagonist sits among the waiting patrons stripped to his boxer shorts, it felt like an instant hit.

And it was, propelling sales of Levi’s 501 jeans up 800% to a point where demand outstripped supply, and it ushered in successive decades of iconic campaigns. It felt effortless. The reality was anything but.

Read the full article on Marketing Week.