The Grease Campaign for Wrangler 1979

In 1979 the film Grease arrived in the UK and point of sale posters were launched at the same time. Before the launch the producers of Grease had been looking for partners who would get involved with promotion of the film. Wrangler signed for the rights to use Grease on their posters and also produced a radio campaign which had conversations between Rickenbacker and Mr. Wrangler talking about Grease and the Wrangler product. This was recorded onto promotional cassettes which had songs from the musical alongside Rickenbacker and Mr. Wrangler’s conversations. While Wrangler organised Grease nights around the country the posters, tapes and badges were distributed as promotional giveaways. A little detective work revealed The Grease posters were printed in Nottingham at Hawthornes, who in turn made an introduction for me to Robin Dilley.

“The posters were printed as a set of four, so they were easier to print out. The photographs were the work of Terence Donovan, who was more used to shooting fashion than denim, and were shot on Hampstead Heath in London. The posters recreated scenes from the musical, with the Wrangler logo on one side of the poster and the Grease logo on the other, and were hugely detailed, aiming to recreate the clutter of the original screenplay. For this reason, and because Donovan was more used to photographing pristine couture fabrics rather than comfortable, worn-looking and non-ironed denim, the whole shoot took between four and five days.” (ibid)


Grease was the biggest selling album of all time and the seven tracks chosen by Dilley on the Wrangler promotional tape all went to number one in the British charts. The campaign established the Grease phenomenon alongside Wrangler, and ensured that the people associated with the film wore Wrangler. The Wrangler product, teamed up with the Grease image was a winning combination; the posters reflect the fun and youthfulness of the movie and have a strong American theme.

My comment on the Grease campaign, is that, although successful because it brought about increasing sales of Wrangler jeans, it offered nothing new to the young British teenager. The same American message, refreshingly not traditionally western or rural, was directed at an imitation, make-believe small town American, audience. The British audience was simply asked to join the Grease celebration, but not to bring anything of themselves to the party. The market was young, but faceless, simply invitees to the celebration that Wrangler hosted. The message was aimed tightly at the teenager, but within that market, it was aimed indiscriminately at the mass teen market. Anyone over 20 years old was definitely not invited to join in. The smart move was yet to come, with the What’s Going On? campaign by leading London agency Collett Dickenson Pearce, which created a specific message to a British, urban audience, supported by British music and branded T shirts aimed tightly at the British teen market. The message was overtly rebellious and anti establishment, but at least it was British.