In visual media, the glitzy, greedy zeitgeist of the 1980s found expression in series such as Dynasty and Dallas, and films such as Scarface (1983) and Wall Street (1987). Launderette, a nostalgic, anachronistic pastiche of a mythical America, was served up as an antidote to the excess. The styling took its lead from the 1950s, with Kamen’s slick quiff and tight T-shirt admired by women with cat-eye glasses and roller-curled hair, while the soundtrack was from the ’60s.
The rarity of the female gaze in commercials is perhaps explained by the industry’s make-up. “One of the big challenges we’ve still got is that 75% of all our creative directors in the advertising and media sector are male, and therefore all the work that we see is produced generally through that lens,” says Hanan. The impact of the advert went way beyond jean sales. Until 1985, boxer shorts were seen as “dodgy American underwear from the ’40s”, Sir John Hegarty, co-founder of BBH and the art director for Launderette, told BBC Radio’s The Media Show in 2023. It was in order to overcome censorship issues that something “less indecent” replaced the original Y-fronts, he explained. “We put him into boxer shorts. He gets undressed, the commercial runs, the sales of 501s go through the roof, and the sales of boxer shorts go through the roof.”
Getty ImagesMusical tastes also changed as a result of the advert. I Heard it Through the Grapevine was re-released and made the top 10 in the UK, sparking a renewed interest in soul and R&B, while Kamen’s own music career took off when the ad attracted the attention of Madonna, who made him her protégé, co-writing and producing his hit single, Each Time You Break My Heart.
Kamen, who died in 2021, was part of the influential Buffalo fashion movement in the 1980s. Just prior to being cast in the advert, he had appeared on the cover of forward-thinking style magazine The Face in a shoot styled by Buffalo founder Ray Petri. In 1986, Kamen was again the magazine’s cover star.
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