Levi’s “O Pioneers! (Go Forth)” dir. Cary Fukunaga
Saw “Funny People” last night and easily my favorite part of the whole four-and-a-half hours was this spot they ran before the show. I cut off mid-conversation to watch it and turned to the screen, wholly transfixed for :60. And then I posted it here on my website, which makes me some kind of stooge—a pawn in Levi’s devilish little game. Or perhaps a pawn in Walt Whitman’s.
I can’t consider Levi’s without thinking of Ryan McGinley now. Is their whole brand shifting to absorb his particular vision of youth? This ad spot feels like a distant relative of the Gobbledigook video, only glaringly more commercial.
Details I noticed upon repeated viewing: antlers, flannel, a likely fixie (narrow handlebars, no rear brake), gay makeouts, vests. It seems we need to work harder to stay ahead of advertisers.
This is not to say that I dislike the ad. It’s quite captivating, as lonelysandwich said.
im diggin’ this a lot.
