Levi's - America (Go Forth) Commercial

Levi's America (Go Forth) commercial directed by Cary Fukunaga for Wieden+Kennedy, Portland using poem by Walt Whitman. The prints (see link below) were photographed by Ryan McGinley.

http://homotography.blogspot.com/2009...

• Category

  Howto & Style

[Michael B]

Hey Levi's how about making my 527s IN AMERICA so you don't look like such a hypocritical douchebag. OH WAIT... by "Go Forth" you meant to other nations with cheaper labor. Now I get it.

[newwind07]

The top rated comments are defending this? Whitman's poem was a hopeful declaration of the American spirit; transcendentally just and equal, deliberate and incessant. But here we have that reduced to a pair of jeans. Is this some genius speaking through satire or has consumerism become this crass? The American dream of independence and self-actualization has become a pair of over-priced jeans.

[Sombit Mondal]

wow, here's your run of the mill redneck talking.

[MaxwellD13]

Some of yall are reading too much into this. It may not be the facts. Just the idea. Something to aspire to, not sneer at.

[ArisBates]

you think too much.

[smitehz]

havent bought levis 3 years cause of this commercial. never will again.

[KidJoXander]

@mrdavisdance are you retarded? You *really* don't see the message in this? Wow.

[toddmg]

A problem with the system is that yes, if we forget about non-Americans it is, as you put it "in 'our' best interest"... But if we care about the world more then we don't merely ask "what is in OUR best interest?"..... Cheap labor hurts people more than it helps, and that matters to me.

[mrdavisdance]

Can someone tell me what the fuck kind of hipster bullshit this is? Taking classic poems and using them to sell jeans. You just lost a customer.

[mpcavchannelone]

Wouldn't you be willing to consider that our "idealistic perceptions" of America were something sold to us in the first place? That ulterior motives were already at work? That patriotism is always-already politics as advertising?

[Michael B]

Hmm... my comment was directed at Levi's hypocritical attempt to commodify American archetypes. The ad panders to a sense of pseudo-patriotism (which is actually just masked materialism) by means of juxtaposing the words of a great literary mind with pictures of pretty people and fireworks. They're selling us our own idealistic perceptions of America. But Levi's doesn't actually care about American ideals, just profit margins and stock dividends. It's all glossy sparkly bullshit.

[brothaigh78]

You're an idiot. Get your head out of your ass and wake up. Made in America doesn't mean crap. It means higher wages, material costs, health benefits, and union fee's. Do you understand that it is in your best interest for America to continue using cheap labor? Maybe you'd like to pay $350.00 for the same pair of jeans that are hugging your stupid ass.