Commenting on national ad campaigns is not typically our thing, but Wieden + Kennedy’s currently running work for Levi’s is very impressive. The TV spots are narrated with poems by the great American poet Walt Whitman and utilize imagery reminiscent of Ryan McGinley. Read more for the conflict, it’s stimulating…
“Go Forth!” It’s exactly what we needed to hear. But are the ads prostituting the works of a great American poet in order to sell us stuff, and should we be OK with that? Either way, it is good to see that Whitman still speaks to the core of the youth over a hundred years after his death, a testament to his genius.
So I’m a little behind on the times, but I thought Seth Stevenson from Slate had some great thoughts on the campaign, and delivered them effectively in this article. Stevenson ends with this very appropriate comment, ”among those who work in advertising, there is an eternal battle between the desire to make art and the imperative to serve commerce. This 60-second film is, to me, a small artistic gem. Right up until that Levi’s logo at the end.”
Say what you will about the intellectual conflicts within the campaign, no matter what, it is beautiful.
Check out the commercials if you haven’t already seen them …. ONE and TWO
I absolutely LOVE these commercials, everything about them is spot on- perfectly epic. I was very disappointed with the corresponding web presence though, it’s particularly NON-epic and almost childish compared to the darkness and the Whitman of the commercials.
I really like these commercials. I too thought Ryan McGinley directed them, seeing as how he shot the current stills campaign from them. It turns out it was Cary Fukunaga, who directed the recent Sin Nombre which also had gorgeous cinematography.
The shame is, the televised version of “Pionneers! O Pioneers” is edited to exclude the scene at around 28 sec. in, where two men are shown being passionate towards one-another. Tisk tisk tisk, American censorship, when will you learn what is right to censor and what is wrong.
I thought that Michel Gondry was the director of these recent commercials. I guess I was mistaking the style with his previous commercial. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uj6G1C6c0uw
Then again, under closer analysis they’re not too similar.