The idiocy of jean ads

Levi’s new ads on Hulu make me ashamed to be a blogger. The commercials are just the worst. Hey rich white (please note: "white" in this case applies not to race, but to a whole...erm, lifestyle) women! Our jeans are just like you! Mass-produced, unoriginal and overwrought.

  This chummy-chummy approach always seems like a stereotype of a commercial. Some out-of-touch ad exec on the 80^th floor in Manhattan is like, “How can we sell more jeans to suburban moms? They’re crazy about babies and they hate jean shopping, plus all this new fangled social media-ing…”

So we get these “just us girls” spots talking about how unique some factory-produced in Costa Rica? China? jeans are, how these amazing jeans make these women feel special. And, of course, some of the usual crap about how hard it is to find jeans that fit, the interchangeable swimsuit/jeans “OMG math is hard” sad faces.

Uh-huh.

Also special is how they’re made just for curves! That means real women like us, you know?  Real women like the four women I’ve seen in the ads thus far, upper-class bloggers with seemingly indistinguishable personal style, home décor and other characteristics like babies, husbands and blogs about their babies and husbands.

I was glad, yesterday, to see I’m not the only one with sore eyes (you know, from rolling them so much). The Daily What showed us their print ad:

We won't even talk about butt size and race, here, ok?

….yyyyeeeeeeaaaaaah. Wouldja just LOOK at these real, curvy women!! Finally, these poor ladies have some jeans that fit! No more hours schlepping from store to store, leaving the dressing room in tears because this 16 is too big, this 16 is too small, and you JUST WANT A FREAKING PAIR OF JEANS WHY DOES FASHION HATE WOMEN??

You want a nice pair of jeans that fit well? Pay for them. Pay for the time it takes to make them, and the skill required to construct them. You can’t afford them (I sure can't)? Don’t wear jeans. I don’t like wearing jeans – mostly because I can’t find any that fit. Fits thighs, not waist. Might fit waist but I don’t know, won’t go over thighs. So, instead of shaking my fist at God, I just don’t wear them. I pick out clothes that are comfortable and look nice – jeans are not some sort of holy, required article clothing. Feeling good about yourself in whatever you want, that’s  required. And Levi’s clearly does not agree.