Levi's has, over the years, commissioned some of the most innovative, entertaining and strategically brilliant advertising campaigns in the industry. Thanks (primarily) to agency Foote Cone + Belding (San Francisco) and later BBH, we've been treated to some great advertising--with a subtle sexiness that has become Levi's trademark.
Now it is time for Wieden + Kennedy Portland to take a swing at Levi's. It recently introduced a a new campaign titled Go Forth, which draws on the brand's heritage as the quintessential American jeans, and targets the next generation of twenty-somethings (Levi's core target).
From Stuart Elliott of The New York Times:
The campaign is meant to buff the image of the Levi’s brand as much as sell products like 501 button-fly jeans. The hope is that “Go forth” will resonate with young America today the same way that campaigns like “501 blues” and “501 U.S.A.” successfully appealed to a generation two decades ago.
The “Go forth” campaign is replete with Americana imagery, in keeping with research indicating that teenagers and 20-somethings are patriotic and optimistic about the United States. Those elements include the poetry of Walt Whitman, flags, paeans to the pioneering spirit, declarations of independence, salutes to hard work and, in the star-spangled tradition of Madison Avenue, copious amounts of nubile flesh.
The “Go forth” campaign is replete with Americana imagery, in keeping with research indicating that teenagers and 20-somethings are patriotic and optimistic about the United States. Those elements include the poetry of Walt Whitman, flags, paeans to the pioneering spirit, declarations of independence, salutes to hard work and, in the star-spangled tradition of Madison Avenue, copious amounts of nubile flesh.
Here's Creative Review's summary:
The campaign will run across TV, print, and digital (with the website launching tomorrow) and, according to executive creative director Susan Hoffman, wants to pay homage to Levi's history, "but also to refresh and reinvent the idea of a pioneering spirit for the times in which we live". These times are of course that of a recession and the spots feature a manifesto suggesting that one of the answers is to abandon suits and make a return to good ol' fashioned hard graft (presumably done while wearing Levi's jeans) – "I am the new American pioneer, looking forward, never back," it states. "No longer content to wait for better times... I will work for better times. Cause no one built this country in suits." The two TV spots continue in a similar vein, featuring works by US poet Walt Whitman.
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