The Levi’s “Giger Train” Commercial
In 2003 Levi Strauss & Co. aired a commercial featuring a train designed by H.R. Giger
The TV Spot, directed by Johan Renck, features American model Brandon Merrill, wearing Levi’s jeans, riding a black stallion along railroad tracks across a desert landscape. An oncoming train approaches, which she rides full speed towards. She then hitches her jeans to her saddle, and at the moment before she and the train collide, leaps across the full length of the train, landing safely on the other side.
The ad ran internationally on MTV and VH1 as well as in movie theaters.
Featured song: No Pain No Gain by Unkle ft Keith Flint
H.R. Giger’s concept design sketches for the train, the saddle, and the opening of the train tunnel:
Giger’s train was brought to life by visual effects company The Mill, and designed by Ben Smith.
In 2004 H.R. Giger and his agent Leslie Barany commissioned UK based company Scales & Models to create a physical model of the train, to be exhibited for his show “H.R. Giger’s Retrospective” at the gallery Halle Saint-Pierre, Paris, France.
Photos of the scale model and H.R. Giger admiring it at the gallery exhibition:
Sadly, the commercial would only be shown in the USA for a few short weeks after airing in July of 2003. It was pulled from broadcast in August after complaints from train safety lobby Operation Lifesaver. The president of Operation Lifesaver, Gerri Hall, wrote a letter to Levi’s chairman Bob Haas, requesting the ad be pulled, stating; “[the ad] trivializes the dangerous, illegal and all-too-often tragic activity of playing on railroad tracks.”
[Special acknowledgment to stunt rider Nicole Rose for jumping over that train]
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