Risky Business, The Wizard of Oz and Other Recent Happenings

Plus: Jeans campaigns are suddenly all the rage

In a week dominated by Train Daddy, Aunt Gladys, the NFL, Wednesday and Mayor McCheese, here are some other head-turning haps and trends from the marketing-media sphere.

The rear view

Since time immemorial—well, 1969, to be more precise—Levi’s ads have relied on form-fitting denim stretched across shapely glutes to sell women’s jeans. It works. The vintage Levi’s for Gals print ad and the just-wrapped Beyoncé video anthology diverge in significant ways, but the bum shot reigns supreme in both. “The Best Seat in the House” successfully launched the womenswear line in the Feminine Mystique era, while Queen Bey has spiked sales during her year-long ad collab and clothing drop. As for another high-profile campaign—jeans/genes!—Sydney Sweeney’s internet-melting role for American Eagle initially bumped web traffic, social engagement and stock price, but so far has not boosted the bottom line. Less eugenics, more hindquarters? Discuss.

Agency: TBWA\Chiat\Day LA, Parkwood Entertainment

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Risky business

In other risqué-lite news, brands not known for their sex appeal are trotting out uncharacteristically edgy material to get noticed. Protein snack Trubar debuted its first national advertising with a “Bite Me” tagline, while garden product Miracle-Gro hired a Love Overboard cast member for its “Full Bush Summer” effort. And Doritos dropped a ‘70s-inspired porn parody to introduce a swicy new flavor, with Walton Goggins starring as The Plumber. The tactic can backfire, though, as Urban Decay found after enlisting a popular OnlyFans creator, a beauty influencer and self-proclaimed “mattress actress,” for a campaign that critics like Cindy Gallop called superficial and hypocritical. There is a line, and marketers sometimes need help locating it.

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Not in Kansas anymore

The new Las Vegas monument The Sphere is well on the way to selling 200,000 tickets to its immersive, high-def, AI-enhanced screenings of The Wizard of Oz, opening later this month with groundbreaking in-theater haptics like wind, fog, lightning, fire and smoke. There will be flying monkeys (of some sort). While the part-movie revival, part-thrill ride is far more technically sophisticated than anything in exhibition history, it should be food for thought for the modern multiplex. The “KPop Demon Hunters” sing-along and elevated junk food may drive traffic, but an updated Smell-O-Vision and other William Castle-esque gimmicks might just put more butts in (tingling) seats.

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