On Facebook, Levi Strauss & Co. kills its competition, finishing up the month of July with 6.2 million Facebook "likes" — 5 million more than the number two denim brand, Guess, which has a paltry 1.2 million fans.
The iconic denim brand probably deserves the honor. A 183-year-old company, Levi's manages to consistently produce on-trend well-constructed jeans that nod to the company's true-blue American roots. Levi's are the anti-fashion, pro-style giant of the denim world. Oh, and a couple years back, they ran a phenomenal (and controversial) ad campaign called "Go Forth" which set romantic, spirited clips of the young being young all over America, against a soundtrack of poems by Walt Whitman*. Using a transcendentalist poet to shill corporate denim is pretty skeevy and misses the point of the poetry for sure, but the ads are masterful and, to be honest, more of an advertisement for Walt Whitman than for Levi's. Poetry can't afford to produce and run its own advertising (at least, not on a mass level) but it could definitely use some.
Well, I'll stop justifying this and just admit that I enjoy watching the videos so very much. I think they're great and well done and it makes me happy when people make beautiful things and get paid handsomely for making them. And Levi's deserves its 6.2 million Facebook "likes" for running these ads.
Clips below:
*Tagging Walt Whitman. Why not? I'm sure there'll be a day when the tag will come in handy. I'm long overdue for an untimely Clinton/Lewinsky tangent.
