Generation O: Multiculturism As A New American Value

Several posts ago, I talked about Levi's new "Go Forth" campaign. I was intrigued with the strategy of equating the values of "pioneer" to the values shared by the Millennial target, and the "find" of Walt Whitman's one-known voice recording reciting his poem "America." That sparked a discussion with my colleague Neal, who was inspired to blog about our core American values (perfect for a July 4th blog on collective-thinking.com). Neal dug up a 1984 paper written by L Robert Kohls called “The Values Americans Live By." Neal and I speculated about how these values have morphed in the past 25 years, and questioned if there was anything new to add to the core list.

Guess the answer is "multiculturism." Evolving from the values of Freedom and Fairness. Everyone knows Millennials are the most multicultural generation in our history. This may be the soft underbelly of the new Levi's work. Some pundits are faulting the new campaign for ignoring this value.

From PSFK's blog: Levi’s and its campaign don’t connect with the great things that are happening in this country, the radiant mix of cultures evolving within it nor the reality of its past. Probably the most appalling ad in the campaign is the one where a young girl runs through a meadow by the words “This Country Was Not Built By Men In Suits”. Now, some of us here (me) didn’t spend a lot of time studying US history but I know that the people who built this country couldn’t even run freely in the fields. Agency Spy spotted graffiti daubed on the ad in New York’s subway which spells out who a little more clearly: “By Slaves”.

Christine Huang, formerly of PSKF, blogs:
I saw one of these ads in NYC’s Spring Street 6 subway station. The copy read, “This country was not built by men in suits” - which someone added to in matching handwritten scrawl: “IT WAS BUILT BY SLAVES”. Up to that point, I hadn’t been able to put my finger on what it was about the campaign that made me feel so uneasy. But with that bit of graffiti, it all came together. Levis (or rather W+K) is glorifying these centuries old American ideals - Optimism! Egoism! Manifest Destiny! - while making paltry gestures towards the reality of American history and what America is today. Besides the few ethnic actors in the video, their print campaign is disappointingly monochromatic and seems almost apologetically alienating. It would have been really amazing to see Levis pay homage to the symbols of true individuality from our past - the freedom riders, abolitionists, suffragists, veterans.”The Frontier” is sexy and all, but how about some real American heroes?

Generation O: Millennials as Pioneer

Levi's is breaking its newest campaign from it's new agency W&K on July 4th. The insight for the campaign links the values of Generation "O," (the progressive Millennials who helped tip the youth vote for Obama) to the brand values: America's pioneering spirit and ingenuity. The black and white film imagery is epic (very Terrence Malik's Days of Heaven). Yet the element that's most interesting is the soundtrack. Someone over at W&K had the idea to use the only known recording of Walt Whitman reciting his poem, "America." How did they think of that? A google search on America values? A youtube search? An idea from a long-ago poetry class squirreled away for future use in an ad campaign? I'm curious!

From what I've seen online, there is no reference in the commercial about the poem, the author or the 1890s recording. If one just happened to see the spot in the movie theater this weekend, I wonder what people would think about the track? I found the track on Youtube, along with an animated Whitman spouting the verse (this is not from the campaign). Maybe the agency is thinking "disruption." Maybe they're thinking buzz value (I'm certainly talking about it, but I'm not the target.)

It will be interesting to hear what others have to say about the campaign. I can't think of any contemporary examples of advertising that has used classic poetry. I do suspect that poetry may be considered "cool" among twentysomethings (contemporary songwriters and rappers are considered poets). Poetry always has been cool--yet niche--among that age cohort.

Whitman certainly is an intriguing fellow--iconoclast, poet pioneer, journalist, politically-engaged, humanitarian, nurse, potentially closeted about his sexuality. Can't you just see Anthony Hopkins in the Whitman bio-pic?

A little known fact about me: I learned and recited one of Whitman's most famous poems when I was seven years old. O Captain, My Captain. I can still remember parts of it. I particularly loved reciting the dramatically ghoulish lines, "o hark, hark, hark o those bleeding drops of red, where on the deck my captain lies, fallen, cold and dead."