Pioneers O’ Pioneers

I haven’t thought of Walt Whitman in years, but recently he seems to have made a fairly significant return to my life.  I’m reading Specimen Days by Michael Cunningham…brilliant as always. The story weaves the thread of Whitman throughout, from his poetry to Cunningham’s character creations. Cunningham characters are allegory to Whitman’s poetry.

Now, enter a new Levi’s commercial directed by the amazing Ryan McGeary whose images are set to music and a haunting performance of Pioneers O’ Pioneers, taken from an obscure 1950s album of Whitman’s poetry.

I wasn’t sure what to think of the commercial at first, wondering what Whitman’s words had to do with selling jeans. But the more I thought about it, the more intrigued I was with Whitman’s words against the backdrop of American Youth and the concept of stepping beyond oneself and becoming something more by changing the world, exploring a new undiscovered country within ourselves. So, after googling Pioneers again and reading the poem several times, I started searching out what others were saying about the Levi’s commercial. This blog has some very interesting comments from literary students about the merits of the commercial with some very strong opinions on both sides.  I always find discussions about brands interesting but this one seems to have piqued my interest even more.  Perhaps because of the Cunningham novel I’m reading. Needless to say, some very divergent ideas about Whitman’s poem, the imagery and ideas about neo-socialism and other comparisons. Ultimately though, I think Derek Dukes made the best argument.  He said:

“I too was led to google ‘Pioneers Oh Pioneers’ and discover that it was in fact a Whitman poem.

I don’t really view this as commercialization of Art, the commercial seems to draw a connection between the Levi brand, which came out of Pioneers heading west heading the call of Manifest Destiny. It seems there’s a good case to be made that over the years Levi’s have been the chosen fashion for Pioneers, from the Gold Rush miner 49-ers, beat poets like jack kerouac, 50’s rebels like James Dean & Elivs to today’s urban hipsters on fixies. Like it or not, Levi’s have been a key piece of identity for American Pioneers.

This is the second set of ads I’ve seen that shift from a ‘our brand is awesome’ message to a ‘you’re awesome, we help you be awesome’ message. The other set of ads are the Quaker Oats ‘Go Humans’ ads.”

I’m going to think on this concept of “you’re awesome, we help you be awesome,” and blog about that later.

Without drawing my own conclusions about the meaning behind the commercial, I can appreciate the medium as art and with all good art, it generates discussion.  Truly, the worst thing in the world is to be boring.  It’s great when people talk about you.  Either way.  It’s when the marketing gods smile on us.

Art in many forms, is … well, art. And personally, I love it when art like Whitman’s is revived, shared, discussed and again shows us what it really is…immortal.

What do you think of the commercial? I’d love to hear from you.