Levi's Commercial: O Pioneers!

I'm going to take a different route with this blog entry. The other blogs I've posted were more formal and I feel it was very rigid and didn't have my voice in it. So with that, here is my new and improved blog. Well not really improved just presented in a different light. Alright then, this is a commercial from the Levi's "Go Forth" campaign. It's one of my roommate's and my favorite commercials. At first you don't understand what this clip is about because its not a conventional commercial or campaign with the product or cause being blatantly talked about or referred to. I know when I first saw it I didn't know if it was a new movie, commercial, TV show or music video.

The commercial starts off with sounds found in nature, birds chirping, the wind, and a clash of thunder. Then the most important component of the commercial's premise takes off when Walt Whitman's powerful words ring out "Pioneers! O pioneers!" The commercial uses excerpts from Whitman's "Pioneers! O Pioneers!" poem from Leaves of Grass. (Sontag quotes Whitman's Leaves of Grass in the last reading we had.) The use of Whitman's words in the commercial add to the impact of the images. The viewer is able to see a carefully constructed argument using a poem from a different era that transforms to coincide with a contemporary society. By using the word "pioneer", meaning an innovator or exploring new territory, over and over again the audience understands the commercial is promoting something more than just jeans. Their "Go Forth" commercial appeals to the young people of America to step up or "go forth" to change society. The commercial argues for youth to embrace each others differences and accept everyone for who they are.

The commercial shows a montage of various young people doing all sorts of things but the main reoccurring theme throughout the commercial is running. It shows lots of images running towards something or someone, running through fields, running on the beach, running with fire, running in mobs. Another reoccurring effect is at certain points in the commercial there is a sound resembling a gunshot but I know its a snare drum being tapped. Its a very short powerful sound but it adds urgency to what the commercial is trying to say. I think one of the most powerful images in the commercial is of a young brunette woman casting her hand high above her head, as well as her eyes, that points to the west much like the statue of woman with a child behind her. To some it looks like a signature Nazi gesture, however the voice over says, "We must march my darlings, we must bear the brunt of danger" when it jump cuts to that image. I think it just adds more emphasis to the message.

When the commercial is ending, the almost non-existent music from the beginning of the clip begins to crescendo as the voice over articulates Whitman's words faster. It leads up to the ending images of happy united faces along with the words, "We debouch upon a newer, mightier world, varied world, Fresh and strong the world we seize...Pioneers! O Pioneers!" being said. The last words are said with a ritardando of sorts to leave the viewer thinking about the commercial. And of course right after the last words are said there is a pause and then the gunshot sound is played simultaneously when the Levi's brand shows up on the screen to remind the audience of what the whole commercial was for. I feel the ending leaves the viewer with an empowerment to go do something revolutionary.