Garfield's Ad Review
Levi's Target Unlikely to 'Go Forth' and Buy Its Jeans
Wieden Spot Too Romantic for Audience Sensitive to Being Manipulated
There is something quite special about the new Levi's campaign from Wieden & Kennedy.
It is an exquisitely wrought example of design, language, mood and spirit (indomitable spirit, to be precise). It is also visually and tonally consistent across all media platforms. And it is obviously grounded in research that discovered a romantic and idealistic tug among the target audience for the good ol' American pioneering imperative.
The flawless integration of design, strategy and theme, however, isn't what makes the campaign so special. What makes it special is that, more likely than not -- at least in the U.S. -- it will generate little more than a rolling of eyes on a mass scale.
Because it is too cleverly manufactured, too pompous, too precious. In short, too advertisingy.
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Title: Go Forth Marketer: Levi's  Agency: Wieden & Kennedy, Portland, Ore. |
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| The new Levi's campaign from Wieden & Kennedy is no good because it's too good by half. |
Those words are difficult to spit out, because worldwide we are so awash in poor craftsmanship of strategically empty ideas that you just want to applaud people who know what they're about. You certainly want to applaud those who hear the simple, emotive beauty of Walt Whitman's "America."
Centre of equal daughters, equal sons,
All, all alike endear'd, grown, ungrown, young or old,
Strong, ample, fair, enduring, capable, rich,
Perennial with the Earth, with Freedom, Law and Love,
A grand, sane, towering, seated Mother,
Chair'd in the adamant of Time.
It's a stirring poem, and is even more moving in Whitman's own voice, as played from an old wax-recording treasure underneath the images.
If the language is too grandiloquent or elusive, Wieden offers its own more accessible version of similar sentiments. To wit: "I am the new American pioneer. Looking forward, never back. No longer content to wait for better times. I will make better times." And so on. The slogan, amid economic extremis, is "Go forth."
Let's just for a moment suppose that this inspiring, uber-optimistic worldview somehow addresses Levi's biggest marketing problem: its image of being a declasse discount-store jean amid premium-denim hipsters. Of that possibility we are dubious, but let's just say. The larger question is whether the bootstraps ethic will find a receptive audience in a dustbowl economy, and whether even the romantic admonition to "go forth" has any relevance to a target demographic that increasingly is going forth from their old bedrooms at Mom and Dad's to their places of under- or unemployment.
Levi's sales weren't down 12% in the last quarter for no reason. Do people who can't figure out how to cover the car payment, much less imagine the proverbial white picket fence, really want to be offered, as an alternative, some 19th-century concept of manifest destiny? We think not. So that's the first problem.
The second problem is the excessive-craftsmanship issue. Maybe it's refreshing to finally see an ad campaign aimed at people under 30 that doesn't get all self-referential and postmodern, that isn't ashamed to imbue a brand with something beyond irony. The fact remains, though, that this audience is sensitive about being manipulated.
That's why postmodernism abounds: It's a way to trick the audience by flattering them into thinking that they can't be tricked by plain old brand messages.
Who knows? Maybe potential Levi's customers will view all this high-flown, can-do-spirit stuff and be tricked into thinking that the unabashed romance of the appeal is flipping the bird at the smart-asses who think they can trick people into thinking they aren't being tricked.
Go back and forth all you like. It'll get you -- and Levi's -- exactly nowhere.
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The spot I hunted down on YouTube is fabulous and, indeed, very stirring. But "too good by half?" Lawd. I hope to heck people WILL continue to keep the bar as high as I believe the good folks at Weiden Kennedy have done here.
Readers, check it out for yourselves at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_uOizSkvFo
And the corresponding website is fantastic. http://goforth.levi.com/newdeclaration
But rather than debate it's merits here, I'm going to send the link to my niece and see how (or if) she and her friends respond.
As an ex-agency guy, seeing this work literally makes me shake my head. This speaks to no one. No one. This is a perfect example of the agency using client money to speak to themselves. Technique trying desperately to grab some element of substance in post production. I have deep respect for WK. No doubt. But people...please...really???? Has it come to this? And by the way, it was "nice" of you to at least appreciate production value, but look back at Nike work from 20 years ago during the explosion of "Bo Knows..."
Same thing.
I believe that you have spent too many years trying to 'pick the fly sh*t out from the pepper'.
The Levi's heritage is almost as old as is our Republic. Their marketing issues will never be resolved by one, 4th of July commercial. however, their cross-cultural appeal at this time of year, in our current economy, works for me.
Now, go back to sleep.
Gary Lumsden
More a tribute to Bruce Weber than Walt Whitman. One tiresome fashion advertising cliché after another. The interracial touch at the end, so gratuitous it was as painful to watch as easy to predict. Whoever matched the lyrics with the pictures obviously wasn't listening. In closing, the spot's pseudo-apocalyptic motifs stank of insincerity, particularly when one considers the cost of making this spot and how richly its creators are rewarded. If sells a single pair of Levis I'd be surprised. Whoever approved it ought to be fired. Whoever conceived it forced to read Leave of Grass and then fired.
This is one of the rare occasions when I think Garfield gets it right. Consumers are very aware they're consumers, and so they're not bothered by the fact Wiedden is trying ever so hard to manipulate them, the problem is that Wieden hasn't given them a reason to care.
I am part of this target market, I have definitely bought my share of $200 jeans but recently felt completely trapped by the designer option and happily purchased my first pair of levi's just a few weeks ago -since I last wore them at 14. I was happy with the style, I was happy with the price ($36) and I was happy to invest back in to the heritage I once loved growing up.
And this was before I saw the ad.
So perhaps I'm ahead of curve but I would guess that is certainly where a brand would want to be.
If more agencies and more brands had more balls to do things better like this Levi's ad then maybe this country's youth wouldn't be so stupid and you wouldn't have to write an article commending something well done but "no good because it's too good by half".
Levi's heritage is working class people working, working at rural and manual labor. The original "501" were adopted as a "uniform" in the 60's by the so-called counter culture, as a statement of defiance against the sartorial expectations of middle-class respectability. Since the 80s. Levi's have come in and out of fashion, as those who determine what's fashionable either included the brand or excluded them. (In Europe and Asia the brand still represented the "authentic" America signified literally by the Route 66 sign and everything the open road, another not to Whitman, represented.
However, the advent of fashion-branded jeans i.e. Calvin, Ralph Lauren, followed by private lable products by retail outlet's, such as The Gap, which formerly promoted and sold Levi's, dealt a blow to the brand from which it never recovered.
One could say the "new" heritage of the brand is now defined, rather solipsistically, by middle-aged men and women, who might embrace the spot as it reinforces a nostalgic view of their teenage years. This "romantic remembering" is what I think informs igotdajone's statement.
In the end, I think where the spot lost me was in imagery found in too much advertising, namely the absence of work. Everyone in the ad is playing—it's as if the good folks at Wieden have accepted the fact that the heroes of our culture no longer participate in anything that vaguely resembles old-fashioned work. Perhaps Pearl District of Portland is a little too fashionable a neighborhood for anyone to notice a shovel or tractor. Or perhaps the makers of this spot realize that the official 9.5% number of unemployed probably underestimates the actual number by half, and so equating Levi's with working class would be as effective as having the narrative not read Walt Whitman but Li Po.
Apropos of groover's mention of "cross cultural" appeal, another necessity in the so-called "age of Obama," the representation here of young and old black American's feel nothing short of the benign expression of racial stereotyping.
Finally, Bob, I think what you begin to describe as "an exquisitely wrought example of design, language, mood and spirit," could more simply be described as "empty virtuosity."
I think there is a fundamental realization in this country that we are living in an age of abundance, which somehow represents as big of a problem as scarcity. Unfair foreign trade, offshoring (aka global sourcing), underemployment, the Asian savings glut, the credit crisis--all of a piece. Nationalism/protectionism is a natural and even potentially valid response.
Part of the cred of the designer denim is that much of it is in fact made here--these designers and manufacturers are much more true to Levi's heritage than Levi's is. Until Levi's gets some religion about where their jeans are made, sentimentalizing hard-scrabble Americana will play just like the hypocrisy it actually is.
And, the play on religion, is well done.
I see on the True Religion brand website that their jeans are "American made,"
But the statement is also ambiguous, J"effrey Lubell founded True Religion in 2002 with the intention of ...
His vision was..."
Are the products still manufactured here, by fabric made in this country?
I'm not 100% sure for any particular manufacturer whether products are 100% sourced domestically. I am not a buyer of premium denim or any denim for my own personal use. Back when I last purchased a pair of jeans (probably three or four years ago), they were Levi's since I didn't know or care as much about these issues then. However, the lady of the house is a premium denim buyer/user. So, I know for certain that all of the 7 for all mankind, citizens of humanity and rag & bone in our house is made in the u.s. whether it is 100% u.s. content, i'm not sure. with the decimation of u.s. manufacturing, it of course becomes more difficult to manufacture products wholly here. but, the point is, that some manufacturers are making an effort at authenticity... to their craft, to their local economies, to living wages and safe work environments, etc. others are not. since levi's isn't (for the most part; i realize that some of their premium lines--representing a very small portion of total volume--are still made here), any claims otherwise (where using the word "america" repeatedly while including whitman's words, to my mind, represents a claim to authenticity) are patently false and fall flat.
Mike McDonald, Co-founder McDonald & Little, Atlanta
Thank you for the insight. Question off subject, was "rag & bone" a reference to W.B. Yeats?
Back to Levi's: Having grown up in West Los Angeles in the late 60s, and going to UCSC in the 70s, I wore Levi's 501 until they began to spontaneously shred. Later, I discovered military surplus stores, and have not worn a pair of jeans since 1978. Now, an adult in the City, I like the retro appeal and message of suits and sports jackets, etc.
Still, I've a fondness for the Brand which is why I've engaged in this discussion. I think Wieden's work stinks of the particular type of inauthenticity that dresses itself in the garb of sincerity. Neilan (see above) recommended the Levi's site and I spent a little time there.
My take: A naked rip off of ADBUSTERS' tone and manner.
I can't imagine consumer, from the late teen up to 30s, not seeing it for what it is: a message that's as condescending as it is unpersuasive. Although it's beautifully executed, it also brings to mind the old rub, our enemy isn't the stupid and brutal but the intelligent and corrupt.
As a brand strategist and creative director, I understand the pressure to worship at the alter of authenticity, but I generally argue against trying to fixate on it, as authenticity is contingent and even the inauthentic has an authenticity of its own.
To see my point of view on these issues, I invite you to visit my site:
www.rwordplay.com
Best,
Robert
It was a Levi's ad on a phone Kiosk. The principle adjective in the ad was the word "honest." The irony was the setting, a stretch of Canal Street, crowded with tourists buying counterfeit watches, handbags and other branded items from dozens of Africans, who preferred the indignities of this work, in this setting to starving, or being butchered at home.
I'm sure in one of those souks inside the buildings that line the street ,one could find a counterfeit pair of Levi's. Or perhaps not, as the brand has lost the prestige they once enjoyed. But kudos to the media buyers.
That's where the insincerity begins. And then you've got kids running through the night with a Go Forth banner and sentiments like "Take up your pen, you general of the new revolution." It all just gives me the creeps.
Unfortunately for advertising, the bar for authenticity is just as high as it is for everything else in this world. This campaign is pretty, but it just isn't believable.
If you're 18 to 24 and your idea of expressing "taking back America" is heading over to goforth.com, I'm worried.
But I want to get this out, less I seem swayed by the many valid points and snappy comments this crowd is apt to generate here.
First off, where is this brand ad taking us? And what about the rest of the Levi's advertising tradition and value? I see no connection!
The words are inspiring and the images provocatively American, but I was disinterested by the imagery and words when combined.
I think W+K is trying to raise the brand to the heights this brand deserves, or at least give respect to this classically American brand. But somehow has lost connection with the audience.
I want to like it (i LOVE LEVIS, I am wearing 4 Levi products as I type), and maybe, like a really good song, or a really good piece or art, it takes time to appreciate. For arts sake, I am patient, but for a :60 spot, maybe not.
differentiated in a world of copycat and abandoned luxury denims. (yes, 7th for mankind, rag and bone and rogan are all dutifully AMERICAN - whatever that means these days). beautifully shot by auteurs with distinctive styles - just what every YouTuber hopes to become/develop with her/his uploads.
what strikes me is the not the mix of black/white, female/male, young/old or even boy/boy comingling (pssst - Whitman and McGinley are both sexually bent, boys) but the level of activity in the spots. Levis are active - in the mix, in movement, in the moment and in the medium. it's not about keeping it real, maaaaaan. it's about keeping the IDEA of real inspirational.
from "live unbuttoned" to "go forth", Levis are guideposting a design to life once again.
great ad. even better campaign.
ps - who the hell said its about the mass market anyway? head over to the current hall of youth ubercool - Urban Outfitters - and you'll find Levis sprawled out under the Grizzly Bear LPs.
great ad. even better campaign.
I understand the importance of identifying brand truths when developing a branding campaign, and while I believe that there is an anti-establishment element woven into the fabric of the Levis heritage, when that element drives an ad campaign it's not more than cliche.
The world is ripe to hear from a brand like Levis right now, what a bummer to see the message manifest itself like this.
Having said that, would anyone have a link to the old Nike Wimbledon commercial that featured Kipling's "If" as audio? Can't seem to find it on You Tube.
I started looking at the tags of other guy's jeans I noticed I like the fit or style, and made a mental note that every single one I stopped to look at were Levi's. After seeing this commercial I went on a hunt for jeans. I stopped at Urban Outfitters (a place I NEVER shop) and saw a huge selection of Levi's. I tried all of them until I found some I liked. I told my brother about this and he recommended I head over to Sears (he only wear Levi's, I never knew but soon found out) because Sears has less expensive Levi's Sure enough they did and I walked out with a ton of jeans in bag.
I haven't bought Levi's since I was in Middle School, but for now, I'm positive there are no other jeans I'd buy instead for a long time.
I feel this point. I remember viewing "Go Forth" for the first time and being moved to a degree. Ten seconds in I guessed it was an ad. By the end I felt manipulated. Not cheated, per se, but wishing a pair of jeans could actually inspire me in the way this little film that carried them could.