Jeans retailer Levi Strauss is hoping mice can help it match the success of model Nick Kamen stripping in a launderette for its latest advertising campaign.

The jeans giant has used state-of-the-art computer technology to superimpose mice heads on to the shoulders of real actors for a TV commercial due to begin next month.

The multi-million pound campaign for its new Type 1 jeans is the most expensive yet, the company confirmed, although it refused to disclose the actual figure.

The latest advert uses a gang of "mice people" and humans who kidnap a cat belonging to a wealthy woman and hold it to ransom until she hands over a bundle of money.

Fredrik Carling, from Levi's, said: "The plot of the film is quite simple - it's simple in the way it talks about bold individuals and these bold individuals happen to be mice."

Features on Levi's Type 1 jeans include larger buttons and rivets and exaggerated stitching. The range starts at £55 a pair.

The 1985 advert for Levi's featuring Nick Kamen stripping to his boxer shorts in a launderette has become arguably the company's most memorable commercial.

It was said to have boosted Levi's sales by 800 per cent in 1986.