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  • 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.

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6 Responses to “Walt Whitman, Levis Strauss and history’s humor”

  1. Andrew Brynjulson November 24th, 2009 at 8:12 am

    Love that spot. Makes me feel like there’s more to a pair of jeans than a fashion runway.

    I’m glad to hear that there is such a rich history behind it. My rhetorical question would be, if no one knows about it, does it matter? The average joe wouldn’t make any of those connections just from seeing the spot.

    I’m always stymied by campaigns that are deeply laden with stories that never really get told. Seems like a waste.

    Good post. Thanks

  2. Eric November 24th, 2009 at 10:42 am

    Hey Andrew - the spot does achieve that certain feeling, doesn’t it?

    I agree - stories are horribly underutilized. Geno actually talked about that in a post the other day. Stories are a huge missed opportunity for so many companies - ‘a waste’ for sure.

    Thanks for the comments!

  3. ro_vicheva (rossi vicheva) November 27th, 2009 at 12:53 am

    Twitter Comment


    пф, как нямаме родна марка/продукт от Ботевско време:)) цъврули? потури? бира? @borislavka Понякога и стихотворение.. [link to post]

    - Posted using Chat Catcher

  4. borislavka (Borislav Kandov) November 27th, 2009 at 2:34 am

    Twitter Comment


    Понякога и стихотворение върши доста добра работа [link to post] #wjuice

    - Posted using Chat Catcher

  5. Usdating January 10th, 2010 at 1:07 pm

    I love this article! I found the story when released to be the biggest joke I had ever heard. I got a good laugh and moved on. Thanks for showing that I could laugh again at the story.

  6. sandy March 4th, 2010 at 2:30 am

    Excellent work. You have gained a new reader. I hope you can keep up the good work and I await more of the interesting posts.

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