Posts tagged Fashion

Levi’s have one of the most recognizable jeans brand names worldwide. Alongside Wrangler they have a long history of selling denim which stretches back to when it was considered workwear rather than a fashion item. They sold jeans to hard-working farmer types and the sort of people who actually needed hard wearing trousers.

One thing Levi’s have struggled with is staying relevant. As their core consumer base aged they failed to move with the times. Having a rich heritage is one thing but any company who wishes to sell to successive generations needs to be light on it’s feet. The only innovation Levi’s came up with that I can think of was ‘twisted’ jeans and the less said about them the better.

Baggy jeans came and went as did skinny jeans but Levi’s keep flogging their dead horse named 501. The 1990s were tough for Levi’s as consumers seemed to want either more expensive designer jeans or cheap non brand alternatives. This time saw Levi’s outsource work to save on costs and there was controversy when their ‘made in the USA’ labels were stitched in by underpaid Chinese laborers.

In the last decade Levi’s has taken to filling lawsuits against anyone who make jeans deemed too similar to their trademarks. They apparently have ‘denim detectives’ who job is to search out new companies to sue. By 2007 Levi’s finances started to improve and they are hoping to continue this with their new advertising campaign.

“For we cannot tarry here,
We must march my darlings, we must bear the brunt of danger,
We the youthful sinewy races, all the rest on us depend,
Pioneers! O pioneers!”

The new advert features a poem by Walt Whitman called Pioneers! O Pioneers! read over footage of young people running around in the countryside in muddy jeans. The agency behind the advert are W+K who are trying to cast Levi’s as hard wearing, honest and maybe even pioneering:

The inaugural TV spot “America” sets the tone for the new campaign: America is going through a challenging time, but the American spirit of self-reliance will persevere.

There is of course also a website which aims to ‘paint a portrait of the voices in a changing country.’ and a print campaign shot by the young, credible photographer of choice Ryan Mcginley. Mcginley has just worked with Wrangler on their ‘We are animals’ campaign which also featured models getting muddy.

The use of Whitman’s stirring poem makes the advert simultaneously inspiring and a little bit sickening. It’s easy to get caught up in the words and the imagery but ultimately they are just flogging jeans. It takes some guts to align your product to an advert that seems to aim feel revolutionary, particularly when it’s such an old fashioned product.