(Agence France Presse distributed the following article on August 8.)
WASHINGTON — US jeans maker Levi Strauss and Company has pulled a television commercial depicting a young girl in Levi jeans riding a horse along a railway line following complaints from safety groups.
The company pulled the ad late Thursday, a day after it received a petition from the “Operation Lifesaver” safety group and eight transport organizations.
Marmie Edwards, a spokeswoman for Operation Lifesaver, said the ad showed a young girl in Levis jeans riding along a rural railway line.
A train starts coming down the track towards the girl, and she turns her horse and jumps over the train, and out of harm’s way.
Edwards said safety groups feared the images could encourage impressionable teenagers to trespass on railway lines.
“I don’t want to believe that Levi Strauss would intentionally produce an ad that would influence youth to put themselves in harm’s way,” Edwards said.
Some 5,000 pedestrians have been killed since 1990 while trespassing on US railroad tracks and property, according to Operation Lifesaver.
Levi Strauss spokesman Jeff Beckmann said the jeans maker takes safety concerns seriously, but he stressed the commercial was not meant to be taken literally.
“While we appreciate legitimate concerns regarding train safety, we didn’t agree that it could apply to our (commercial) spot,” Beckmann said.
However, he said Levi’s had pulled the plug on the commercial, but added it had only had a light television schedule, and was not a key commercial.
“It was a fantasy spot…it was never meant to be taken literally,” he said.
Founded by Bavarian immigrant Levi Strauss in 1853, the San Francisco-based company that still bears his name is one of the world’s largest jean makers.