Levi's "Trademark" 1977

The greatest commercial of all time. by Robert Abel and Associates

[@seththomas9105]

One of the coolest TV commercials of all time. Awesome graphics, Ken Nordine, and that kick ass harp player bending notes! Remember this one like yesterday/

[@DouglasClemens]

One of my all time favorite commercials.

[@goofballjones5220]

Robert Abel and Associates were one of the first to use computer graphics in their commercials. They even had a Cray XM-P supercomputer to render them. Disney even leased time on it to do scenes on the original Tron.

[@dennelclayton5188]

Wow... I had been searching for this commercial forever. This was the strangest Levi's commercial I had ever seen. Only problem is the animation was too advanced to be a 70s commercial. For some reason I recalled seeing this during the early 80s. This commercial also triggered a very strange memory from my childhood...goosebumps

[@Synthetrix]

I remember these commercials well. They were standouts and ahead of their time. Good 70s times.

[@AbandonedMines11]

Whenever I see this ad, I also remember Dynamite magazine and how sometimes cereal boxes would have 45 rpm records on the boxes.

[@xlntpix]

No CGI here! All hand-rotoscoped, hand-animated and early analog "motion control" to layer different actors on a blue screen. Opticals were so bad they had to shoot back-lit "glows" on animation stands to hide the matte lines! Ahh, the good ol' days!

[@AbandonedMines11]

I grew up in the 70s (I was 9 years old in 1976), and I vaguely remember this commercial. Dang, it's so surreal! I guess people really were smoking a lot of dope back in those days! Wow!

[@AthenaNova1]

Nice to hear the Ken Nordine Voice Over. Very advanced animation for 1977 too

[@teletubetodd]

Wow, I remember this! This may have been the earliest computer-generated commercial I ever saw. But Levi's was always ahead of its time with its commercials, despite dating back to 1853. Thanks for this stroll down memory lane-with the little trademark in tow!

[@xlntpix]

We would work months coming up with psychedelic effects, and a lot of the time they would be mistakes, but look better than what we planned! Long hours on the camera but then we'd watch this stuff on a moviola and be blown away!

[@Down10]

This is a really great commercial. Somehow, I wouldn't expect "warm fuzzies" like the kids playing ball or the "pet trademark" to blend well at all with the sci-fi future world of the neon street, but this ad pulls it off. And the ending rose is a sweet coda: "...it just has to be good."

[@Pookatube]

A CLASSIC!!!

[@cynthianaylor9514]

Remember it like it was yesterday.

[@wilkes85]

This is just a really cool commercial.

[@holke79]

simply amazing

[@ravenuptmor4018]

"I Love The rose at the end of the commercial!"

[@johnpapiewski8232]

Great ad. Also check out "The Stranger" from a few years earlier. More Ken Nordine and very trippy.

[@billybassman21]

God I wish I still smoked weed. This would be cool to watch high.

[@snarkus63]

Gnarly,dude.

[@BenVarkentine]

Isn't this the ad that got Abel the job doing F/X for the first Star Trek movie, which he then blew?

[@theguru1974]

You are correct. I came here looking for it after reading the book "The Fifty Year Mission"

[@spensert4933]

Seems like something that came out of a discussion in the echo chamber of an ad agency. Walking the logo! Yeah that's it!

[@Wyrmshadow]

holy smokes, 1977!!!????? How many CRAYs worked to produce those CGI effects?

[@interstellarsurfer]

Hard to believe this shit cost $330000 to make in 1977.

[@mrlobb]

Does anyone know the whole entire words to this commercial? If they do, can they please write it down and show it on this page?

[@SgtRock57]

@fhood And they really worked. Ah, back in the day.

[@soniccage]

interesting

[@snatcherofpeachs]

this is beautiful

[@fatalcoolfatalcool]

Right on Kimbo! I did'nt think I would ever see this again. Thanks for posting it! Especially since you're skateboarding in it!