People are always getting upset about things and boycotting products and usually it's very dumb. There are two cases in point today: First, a conservative group wants Ben & Jerry's limited-edition "Schweddy Balls" ice cream boycotted, and then Glenn Beck is against revolutionary jeans.

The trippy history of Levi's commercials has been noted here before, but this ad melds their hallucinogenic influences with a sense of existentialist despair. What is man without colorful Dacron polyester? Absolutely nothing: only denim determines identity.

This 1970s Levi's commercial poses the existentialist question man must ask himself when faced with an evolutionary reality: if humans developed differently, say, if they had become fish—which type of polyester blend Levi's would they fancy?

This Levi's full-page tribute to Teddy Kennedy in the weekend NYT was a little weird, now that you mention it. What's the brand connection? This: Teddy Kennedy always believed Walt Whitman was gay. Levi's®. Click to enlarge. [Copyranter]

If you don't follow the denim industry closely you could be forgiven for thinking that world has gone crazy. Levi's, the Americanest jeans you can possibly buy without a flag sewn on them somewhere, is publicly endorsing gay marriage. The gays have literally wrapped themselves around George W. Bush's butt!

♦ A first look at Charlotte Ronson's line for JCPenney, I Heart Ronson, and her new $30 dresses. [Nylon]
♦ Details on the cuts at Men's Vogue: The mag will be published just two times next year and publisher Marc Berger is leaving. The fate of other staffers is unclear. [Mediaweek]
♦ Damien Hirst's latest collaboration with Levi's includes pairs of jeans for $230 and $83 t-shirts. [WWD]
♦ Plastic surgeons report interest in cosmetic procedures is dropping fast. [NYT]

• The premiere of Saturday Night Live with Tina Fey playing Sarah Palin and Michael Phelps as guest host generated the show's best season debut since 2001. [THR]