wolven7 | "Go Forth"

Last night, on Twitter, I mentioned Levi's Jeans' new "Go Forth" ad campaign, and how it does a fucking disturbingly good job of pressing some very precise semiotic buttons, in regards to the nature of What They Are Asking You To Do. They use particular resonances of sound, composition of shot, words, imagery, all combined in a Very particular way to mean precisely one thing.

What I'm saying is, if you look at them, it's like they're designed to make people think that Levi's is actually and in fact going to Start a Serious Revolution. They want you to set some fucking Fires.

Now, Advertising Age is trying to say that it's the "American Pioneering Spirit," they're trying to evoke, but I don't think so. I think, if you look at these ads, you don't see people determined to Strike Forth, into a New Land; that's something that couldn't be engineered in the context of today's youth. In the face of the Green Revolution, and the classist nature of Things at home, these are ads which say "Go Forth," yes, but not "Go Forth, Into The Untamed Spirit." Rather they say "Go Forth, And Take Back That Which Has Been Taken From You. Go Forth, And Make This World What You Need It To Be, At Any Cost."

This is not pioneering, you see here; this is a call to revolution. And it is deeply disingenuous. Their advertising agency has done a fine job, and this has all the earmarks of a serious call to arms, and Levi's makes a wonderful showing of preparing to light the torches, throw the bricks, and storm the streets.

They Are Not. But they damn sure press All the right buttons to make it twitch like they are.