Our first integrated campaign for Levi’s is a call-to-arms with an
optimistic message: “Go Forth.”
As the sweat of New World desperation enveloped the West Coast of America in
1873, the Levi’s brand was born. In recent times, the deep sense of purpose
that birthed America has been obscured. Now is a time of self-reckoning, not
dissimilar to the America of back when. With the words of Walt Whitman,
Levi’s is using inspiration of old for new times. Whitman was an optimist at
a time when it was easier to be a pessimist and believed in the strength of
the individual. He lived through the Civil War, one of the darkest periods
in American history, and drew strength from the struggle.
The inaugural TV spot “America” sets the tone for the new campaign: America
is going through a challenging time, but the American spirit of
self-reliance will persevere. The audio used in the commercial is widely
believed to be an original wax recording of Walt Whitman reading four lines
of his 1888 poem “America.”
Shot locally in Portland, “O Pioneers” expands on the Go Forth message with
a 1950′s Smithsonian recording of Walt Whitman’s poem “Pioneers! O’
Pioneers!” playing over footage of new American pioneers.
In print and OOH, the Go Forth campaign sets out to capture the spirit of
young American pioneers and provide some honest inspiration. Something to
remind us how the individual is resilient, strong, and capable of anything.
Photographer Ryan McGinley’s work embodies this Go Forth spirit. For the
last six years, he has photographed friends on road trips across America and
has made his name as one of the leading young artists of the new generation.
He captures the energy and freedom of youth with wit, honesty, and feeling.
Levi.com – Check out the site here.
NYT July 4th ad.
Interactive turns the Go Forth message into a call to action, drawing
inspiration from the historic want ad placed by famous explorer Ernest
Shackleton. The New Declaration is a fresh look at the document that founded
this country, letting people add their own voices, thoughts, and opinions to
the original text.
The New Americans is an interactive art project, asking people to submit
their videos, images, thoughts, and feelings about this country. It’s a
collective look at the state of our nation today, one that will paint a
portrait of the voices in a changing country.
Credits:
Creative Directors: Danielle Flagg & Tyler Whisnand
Creative: Julia Oh, Julia Blackburn, Azsa West, Rudy Adler,
Jennie Hayes, Rob Kendall, Ben Carter, Zambuki
Account Management: Shelley Stevens, Maggie Entwistle, Tamera Geddes, Diana Gonzalez, Taryn Lange
Interactive: Sean O’Brien, Kris Hanson, Jason Tarantino, Trent Johnson, Guillaume Mathieu, Nathan Bell, Destin Young, Sage Baggott, Christine Ellsworth, Christine Vo, Mark Shepherd, Nick Bauer, Kiem Vu, Scott Kleiner, RENNY!
Studio Artist: Steven Denekas, Loren Boggs, Erin Sorenson, Christina Piluso, Karen Koch, Paul Levy
Studio Manager: Lis Moran
Strategic Planning: Andy Lindblade, Allison Bonner, Christina Perry
Media: John Rowan, Jon Carlaw
Project Manager: Jane Monaghan, Stacy Grogan, Emily Longfield
Retouching: Kyle Pero
Proofreading: Brie Spicer, Liz Upchurch, & Rachel Miller
Print Producer: Deborah Hyde
Art Buyer: Natalie Flemming
Directors: M.Blash, Cary Fukanaga
Broadcast: Jeff Selis, Elliot Graham, Julianna Montgomery
JOINT: Patty B!, Peter Wiedensmith, Elliot Graham, Terra Cloyes
Business Affairs: Teresa Lutz, Jessica Sinn, Cynthia Valenti
PR: Joani Wardwell, Christin Spagnoli, Jane
Accounting: Tara Allender
Oh, thank god the W+K blog isn’t dead. Whew.
NEVER!
great work people
As all around the world ,we know Michael Jordan is the super star in NBA .His quotes is one of my favorite ,that is .“I can accept failure, but can not accept to give up.”He always called the god of basketball ,air jordan.He never give up while fierce competition.
great work – is it a global campaign or just for us yanks that can be proud to be yanks again?
i don’t mean to be rude, but this is so not WK. and neither is it Levi’s. at first, i felt this was some kind of a joke-post. but, looking at the amount of work posted, you don’t seem to be kidding. what in the world is this?
LOVE IT!
Living in Australia, I never really took much notice of the lyrics to your national anthem (until i saw your Marvin Gaye Nike ad)…
I think this work distills the sentiment and the words in that song so powerfully and really makes it relevant to modern America again. You’ve captured the foundations of chaos and struggle that the USA was built on so perfectly… and asked a new generation of kids to dust themselves off and get on with it. Walt Witmans poems are the icing on the cake.
Well done to all involved.
Why hasn’t anyone commented on the Heil hitler hand salute?
I have to say, I do not like this campaign, i seen the ads on some websites, I think it is kinda lame, and kinda weird in a way.
I went and seen transformers 2 and they showed a pretty long commercial, and it just is kinda “wtf was that” feeling to it.
Just my thoughts.
Congratulations W&K! You just copied the same concept that March Forth clothing has been pushing for six years!
http://www.marchforthclothing.com
Ummm…Think I am pretty sure I have seen this before in the action sports scene, and pretty sure March Forth Clothing Company has promoted “March Forth for a long time” Wow, hate the state the obvious but looks like a copy, paste recycle. Great Pictures though!
I think this whole campaign is a insidiuos media attempt to “socialize” our younger generations with communistic propaganda using our own Constituition and a great American poet. What does a topless young girl and a Hail Hilter salute have to do with an American Pioneer? NOTHING! The Soviet Union used the established organization of Boy Scouts and reinvented it to suit their demonic purposes and called the youth “Pioneers”. Hmm? Could it be true, that Levi advertising personnel and creators of this ad have a different agenda than that of true Americanism? I for one have stopped purchasing any Levi products and am spreading the word of how evil this ad really is. Don’t be duped!
Great work W+K. Many people seem scared / angered by it, so you know it’s good. My take here:
http://www.rickliebling.com/2009/10/27/levis-goes-forth-finally/
Hilarious. yes, you know its good if your intent was to scare an anger people. The basis of every great campaign. “Lets see, how can we scare and anger the public into not buying this product…” Great work W+K!
Don’t try to hard,the best things come when you least expect them to. Don’t cry because it is over,smile because it happened.
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Don’t try to hard
great job
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A good education gives a man a great pull.Take no discount designer bags on sale thought for tomorrow.
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