[Life, August 19, 1962. Click for a much larger view.]
What the advertisement says:
The beret and the beard help. But blue jeans are as vital as North light to his creative spirit. Jeans are standard equipment with a lot of unusual people. Wranglers are the jeans they choose. We can’t promise you a one-man show at the Metropolitan; but we can give you the same lean, slim fit, the same sure-sizing that every artist wants. Pre-shrunk to the right size before they’re even sewn together. In sizes for all the artists in your family. From $2.49 to $4.29.If you look closely at that beard, you’ll see that it’s pasted on.
[Found while looking for something else in Google Books’ Life archive. There was a series of “________ wear Wranglers” advertisements in Life. This one is, I think, the goofiest.]
comments: 7
Who is the target for this ad? I guess if there is a series of "x wears Wranglers" someone somewhere might be all, "hmm, if artists and mechanics and 8-year old boys wear them maybe I should too", maybe? Part of the fun of the 60s was how surreal it sometimes got.
It’s true: check out “My Jeans” by The Modern Lovers.
Sorry I don’t know how to hyperlink, but here is the URL at YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48hrHVMCRgY
@ChasM: There are earlier ads that present Wranglers as clothes for the whole family. So maybe they were taking a tongue-in-check non-conformist stand here? Maybe to compete with Levis?
@Stefan: What a great song! And with all the appropriate folk seasonings.
This reminds me of the "I Dreamed I [was a matador! etc] in my Maidenform Bra" series of ads. Even when I was a kid I thought they were very odd... Who thinks this is appealing?
I remember those ads too — I think they had some sort of dream-Freud-psychology element, as with dreams in which someone is naked, or nearly so, in public? I guess we have to say “It was a different time.”
@ChasM: Beats & hipsters, baby. Dig it!
And yet Kerouac wore khakis. : )
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