Walt Whitman, Levis Strauss and history’s humor

Posted on November 24th, 2009 by Eric Dodds and currently 6 commenting.

These thoughts were inspired by a recent conversation with the ever-brilliant Brent Crawford.

Do you remember the “Go Forth” campaign from Levis? They are interesting ads, but the history behind the elements in them is pretty incredible (yes, I’m a nerd). Creators of the effort gave a  nod to the rich history, but if you dig, the details are what make the story interesting.

The spots feature poetry written by American poet and writer Walt Whitman (1819-1892). The poetry is inspirational and symbolic, but the intriguing thing about it is the time at which it was being written: Whitman officially published his first round of poems in the mid-1850s, including the popular poem, “Pioneers! O Pioneers!”.

At about the same time, a man named Loeb Strauss had recently moved from New York to California and was working to build a ‘dry goods’ business. We know of him by his nickname, Levi.

And here, over 150 years later, two men, doing completely different things on opposite sides of the country, are brought together in a way that they never would have imagined. Fascinating. History’s twists never cease to amaze me.