Levi’s “Go Forth” Campaign
July 3, 2009 by Becky Scott
Filed under Marketing
Levi Strauss & Co. is going back to its roots in the form of a new ad campaign called “Go Forth.” In new print and TV ads, Levi’s pay homage to the pioneer spirit. It states ‘I am the new American pioneer, looking forward, never back. No longer content to wait for better times… I will work for better times. ‘Cause no one built this country in suits.’
It hearkens back to a time when people pulled themselves up by their bootstraps to get through hard times, digging in and forging ahead all while wearing bluejeans. Yet Levi’s also wants to “refresh and reinvent the idea of a pioneering spirit for the times in which we live,” according to executive creative director Susan Hoffman.
The newly launched web site, Go Forth, features a “new” declaration of the U.S. It also allows site visitors to write their own declaration, stating, “Take up your pen, you general of the new revolution. Add your words, your images, your voice to a new declaration, redefined in the spirit of today’s America. An America in which we hold these truths to be self-evident…” The video ad (shown below) features what is believed to be an original recording of Walt Whitman reading his poem “America.”
Interestingly, Creative Review reports that Levi’s used photographer Ryan McGinley, the same photog who shot recent Wrangler’s ads as well.
One has to wonder what backlash, if any, will result from minorities who weren’t exactly embraced during pioneer days. It’s doubtful that they would want to celebrate times of forced labor, broken treaties, and stolen land. What are your thoughts?
Here’s the video ad with Walt Whitman’s poem:
image: levi.com/goforth
Humm….This has all been done before….and is currently running by a company called March Forth…check out the vid..and see the similarities..Looks to me Like W.k. owes levis some money
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ob9kbGjEHW8
Maybe I’m just not into the hip “under 30’s” group (we thought the same thing about ourselves in the 60’s), but what is the bit at the end of this commercial with the word AMERICA sitting in water? I see so much disrespect for EVERYTHING in this age and not just from the 20-something’s…but from all age groups. Someone please explain to me the meaning of this type of symbolism!
Worst levi commercial ever..Really sucked…Didn’t convey The Levi Attitude!!!!!
The theme of Levi’s ad campaign is right on time. It’s a get off your ass, look to a positive future, shuck off the deadwood and make life better. Hell, the campaign is way more than selling jeans. It is a call to action. I love it! Read Whitman’s “Pioneer! Oh Pioneer.” poem with a voice of passion, romance and of the challenges ahead. Delicious!
Thank you, i love the ad. people are being so contradicting saying it’s unamerican… who was Walt Whitman again people???
@Mary, sometimes it’s hard to figure out all of the symbolism in ads, that’s for sure. I’m really not sure if they just thought it looked cool, or if there was something deeper.
@sonnyray, what commercials from them do you like better?
@John – I do like Whitman, which is certainly a bonus for me. I hadn’t heard that recording of him reading that poem.
The commercials are annoying. They seem like they were made by baby boomers trying to be hip/young/under 30. They should just say levis are affordable jeans and be done with it.
Horrible commercial…very annoying…and disturbing.
Whatever symbolism Levi is trying to convey is lost with the grainy pics and garbled poetry reading.
The grainy pics are a throw back to a simpler time and is supposed to invoke a feeling of progress and forward movement. Jeans have been an icon in our history and are the symbol of working class; of dirt, and sweat, and toil; of being comfortable enough in yourself to do what needs to be done. Just like those who founded this country and pushed the limits through the years. History is a dirty, bloody, messy, gruesome thing, and some things we aren’t proud of (slavery, treatment of immigrants, etc), but Levi’s is attempting to invoke a feeling of pride in ourselves, what we’ve survived, and what we’re going to have to survive in the future (and of course buy their jeans). And that “garbled poetry reading” is Walt Whitman, the man who wrote the immortal words of Oh Pioneer in his works…it just further serves to show that history lives on and that we need to recapture that pioneer spirit. we have become lazy, self-entitled beings and should be ashamed. It’s time to go forth…
sorry for the tirade, no offense meant…
What does this apparent subliminal message “I am the new American pioneer, looking forward, never back” mean? Don’t prosecute the previous administration for their blatant crimes? This corporation and their commercial are BS. Levi’s moved their manufacturing facilities out of the US years ago and no longer employ US workers. I have not purchased Levi products since and never will again.
i thought i was the only person who even looked deeper into the America sign sitting in the water. iDont know but it seems strange to me. positive or negative, who is to say.
The pioneer commercials are so annoying. Every single time it comes on I say out loud – “I can’t stand this commercial.”
Why try to be so artsy? If they want to get the pioneer message across then why not put a cute girl in Levis (or a cute guy) up in front of a group of other Levis wearing people and have them reading the poem?
It really is overly dramatic, too loud and otherwise grates on my nerves.
thats not whitman it’s winston churchill
What do you mean – the voice reading the poem? Any links to refer to that? I’d really like to know.
i thought i read somewhere that it was whitman reading it? hmm, now i must check this out…
This is an awesome ad campaign. Why would minorities not like this poem? Yes during this era many things were happening that were unfavorable to minorities, but Whitman himself was a romantic and abolitionist. Love the ad. IT DOES NOT GET MORE AMERICAN THAN WHITMAN! Only Emerson has the upper hand on this guy.
Unfortunately, the idiots in the commercial are about as much “pioneers” as nothing can be. All I see are young, jobless, broke bums who aren’t doing anything in a pioneering spirit. If they wanted to go back to the “roots” of the American spirit, why didn’t they go back in time with Whitman’s poem and show people in bread lines wearing Levi’s or why not the black man in Levi coveralls bustin his ass behind a mule & plow. Why didn’t they show a mid-western farmer hoping aboard his combine in his Levi’s. A beautiful Whitman poem, bum-assed generation doing nothing constructive is absolutely nonsense and shows no meaning at all.
I agree with you mike to an extent. Our newest generation is becoming lazy and have a sense of entitlement…but perhaps this commercial isn’t meant to say that this generation is so amazing and forward thinking, but rather, it’s meant to inspire a generation into action and change…
Most of the comments here sound like elderly people confused and angered by those darn young kids and their newfangled fancy picture shows, jeez.