Last week we brought you David Fincher’s return to the TV ad, and today we bring you “Sin Nombre” director Cary Fukunaga’s contribution to the form: two spots for the new Levi’s “Go Forth” campaign, one called “America (Go Forth),” featuring the Walt Whitman poem “America,” with music by Final Fantasy (possibly a contributor to the score of his upcoming musical), and another spot titled “O Pioneers!” The print ads of this campaign (Weiden + Kennedy agency, they also did the Nike ad with Fincher) were shot by hipster photog Ryan McGinley.
This campaign seems to remind consumers that Levi’s is THE quintessential American brand, and it’s refreshing to see the company harnessing two young, fresh American talents to inject some life into the program. The TV spots showcase Fukunaga’s kinetic, hyper-realistic aesthetic that he demonstrated so well in his debut, the startling, visceral and stunning “Sin Nombre.”
Update: One of our eagle-eyed commentors pointed out that the The “O Pioneers” ad is actually directed by video artist and “Lying” director M. Blash. Oops. We tried to do our research but those Youtubers just can’t be trusted. Thanks, team!
I didn't know that Levi's was behind (or at least the official outfitter of) the civil rights movements of yester-year and today. That's an incredible fact and one that textbooks and news media seem to gloss over.
Not saying the commercials don't look good, but come on those are total bullshit. I don't take it negatively when a director or actor does a commercial for any kind of product, but when the commercial/brand takes itself this seriously then it's a lot of nonsense.
It's also a great sign you didn't enable the Author Moderation for the pot about a commercial. Whether it was intentional or not, I think a commercial should be wide open to comments.
I think the commercials are very good. They identify with their target market (youth – who as we all know more accepting than our Ma's and Pa's used to be) and seem to put that social activism first ahead of their brand (that's pretty fucking rare as far as corporate social responsibility is concerned). That takes balls for a company and I respect that.
Plus these commercials just look fantastic.
I'm not taking it so seriously, and maybe you shouldn't either. Just think it's neat that Levi's hired these two cats and think the ads are pretty. Advertising is a process of bullshitting the consumer and I think most sentient adults are aware of this. I'm not super offended that Levi's is spewing Americana and I don't think they are trying to represent themselves as something they are not ("the official outfitter of the civil rights movement," according to you). I like to see good art as a part of mass popular culture, and that's really all I am saying.
As for Author Moderation, I didn't do anything to the comment settings on this post, so if there's an issue, let us know and we will try to remedy it.
I've seen that first ad for a while in movie theaters and then just recently on TV and I even had a discussion with someone about the fact that I liked them. I'm glad to see there's a respectable director who's work thus far I've enjoyed, as opposed to someone who would make me backpeddle and downplay earlier, expressed (if reserved) enthusiasm for the spot.
@Katie
I completely agree about the quality of the commercial; it looks great and if anyone brand name spew Americana, Levi's makes more sense than Coke, Microsoft, Apple, McDonalds etc.
I didn't take it too seriously, but feel that Levi's is trying to catch a ride on an activist bandwagon (if you will). I know this wouldn't be the first time, and tricking the consumer is nothing new.
About the moderation, it was just that a few previous posts on the blog had it enabled in the comments section (I think related to posts about "Parnassus" lol) so I wasn't sure if they were turned off for this post or if enabling the moderation is just a once-in-a-while move, like say for interviews with Sony Classics heads.
Cinematicals post on these (http://www.cinematical.com/2009/09/28/watch-this-cary-fukunagas-levis-commercials/) say that the second commercial was directed by M. Blash. Makes more sense, because though they're kinda similar stylistically, there's a lot more "pretty people doing stuff" in Blash's, and dissolves and the like, which seem more inline with Blash.
Thanks for the tip, SK. The Youtube I linked to credited Fukunaga on O Pioneers, but you just can never trust Youtubers, now can you. This other link credits M. Blash: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhqkcJJuOB0. I will update the post.