There used to be a backlash against showing the huge ugly logo of a company in the ad …in the late eighties, I believe. That was a reaction to the ‘branding’ mantra.

Now there’s a return to stealth branding, thanks to YouTube and viral distribution.

This ad –if you can call it that — for Levi’s features no close-up shot of the label. Just a few guys doing stunts, diving into their brand, that make it extremely watchable. It has been viewed over two million times todate.

Gawker makes an interesting comparison between Levis and Ray-ban about how the stunt is such a formula for going viral today.

Looks like the idea of hiding the logo has gained vogue, telling us something: People are tired of logos masquerading as ads. A logo is nothing, if it does not give you a reason why to buy or subscribe. I don’t use Skype over Google talk because of the cool blue logo. They can hide it from my call interface for all I care. (It’s so tiny, I don’t even notice it is there.) They have made the experience worth coming back to, and paying for, in my case.