Mice models aim for jeans sales success Jan 20 2003
From British News

Levi's hopes a new advertising campaign featuring mice can match the success of model Nick Kamen stripping in a launderette.

The jeans giant has used computer technology to superimpose mice heads on to the shoulders of real actors for a TV commercial due to begin next month.

The multi-million pound campaign, for its Type 1, jeans is the most expensive yet - although the company is refusing to disclose the exact cost.

Until, now the biggest budget Levi promotion was last year's £2.5 million Freedom to Move advert, which showed actors hurtling through walls.

The 1985 advert featuring Nick Kamen stripping to his boxer shorts was credited with boosting yearly sales by 800%.

The latest advert launches across Europe on February 13. It uses a gang of "mice people" and humans, who kidnap a cat belonging to a wealthy woman and hold it to ransom.

The commercial was filmed on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles by director Michel Gondry, who has worked on music videos for Bjork, the Rolling Stones, Radiohead and the Chemical Brothers.

He said "It was important to go with real mice. When you see the close-up of their little eyes there are so full of life, it would have been a shame to miss it."

Backing music is a new song from Bristol-born producer Nellee Hooper, of Massive Attack fame.

Features on Levi's Type 1 jeans include larger buttons and rivets and exaggerated stitching. The range starts at £55 a pair and increases to £80 for a denim jacket.