A campaign for a clothing brand is rolling up its sleeves, figuratively and literally, as the ads are set in a distressed town and the advertiser donates money to help revitalization efforts there.
The campaign is for the flagship Levi’s brand sold by Levi Strauss, and it is the start of the second year of an initiative that carries the theme “Go forth.” The ads are being filmed and photographed in Braddock, Pa., which attracted national attention in the past year for efforts by the mayor, John Fetterman, to address the dire straits of the town after decades of economic decline.
Levi Strauss executives plan to put their money where their pants are, donating more than a million dollars over a two-year period to assist Bradford in renovating a community center and further developing an urban farming program.
And the company will forgo using models for the campaign, instead casting residents of the Braddock area and paying them to appear in the ads. Some ads will include the words “Braddock, Pa.” in a corner.
The town will also be featured in video clips and an hourlong show, sponsored by Levi’s, to appear online and on the IFC and Sundance cable channels.
The idea to use the residents of a real community, shown trying to overcome tough times, was prompted by the introduction of a line of Levi’s work wear, which includes jeans, corduroys, shirts and jackets. The print ads and billboards will carry headlines like “Ready to work,” “Everybody’s work is equally important” and “We are all workers.”
“We wanted to engage consumers in a conversation about real work,” said Doug Sweeny, vice president for Levi’s brand marketing for the Americas at Levi Strauss headquarters in San Francisco.
“The apparel category can be about posing, about being somebody you’re not,” he added, whereas the Levi’s brand promise is that “you always feel your true, authentic self when you put on a pair of Levi’s jeans.”
The ads also address a point raised in the last year about the “Go forth” campaign, which some deemed too ethereal. The ads included salutes to the pioneering spirit of young Americans and the poetry of Walt Whitman.
“We’re marrying ‘Go forth’ with something very tangible,” Sweeny said, by grounding the upbeat optimism of the theme with the gritty realism provided by the Braddock settings.
The suggestion to feature Braddock in the campaign came from the Levi’s creative agency, Wieden & Kennedy in Portland, Ore., which also produced the first year of “Go forth” ads, which began running last July.
The agency said it could be risky for the Levi’s brand to do this, Sweeny recalled, but after he met with Fetterman and other residents, he realized that “the people have an incredible sense of optimism.”
“No one knows” if Bradford will be able to reverse its decline, Sweeny said. “It’s a big question mark. Nothing in life is guaranteed.”
“But I do fundamentally believe that real work and real people will ultimately drive real change,” Sweeny said.
The campaign plays up the concept that Braddock residents are descendants of the pioneers who first wore Levi’s in the 1870s.
“People don’t think there are frontiers anymore,” says a girl who narrates a commercial that depicts scenes of life in Bradford. “They can’t see how frontiers are all around us.”
To underline the connection between then and now, the commercial — to be shown on television and in movie theaters — stylistically evokes two movies about the West, “The Searchers” (1956) and “Days of Heaven” (1978).
“We didn’t want to photograph people in front of a brick wall and call it work wear,” said Tyler Whisnand, who with Danielle Flagg is the co-creative director on the Levi’s campaign at Wieden & Kennedy.
“We wanted to show people who were really doing the work, the hard work, to rebuild after the recession,” he added, and it is serendipitous that “they need a good, sturdy pair of jeans or a trucker jacket to get down to work.”
That the Braddock residents in the ads are attired in Levi’s clothing may cause some to consider the campaign a gimmick or a ploy to generate good feelings for Levi Strauss. The mayor, however, is not one of them.
“Across the board, it is an authentic, organic partnership,” Fetterman said. “At no point did it ever feel it was a marketing campaign.”
“They didn’t show up with magic beans and a couple pairs of free jeans and say, ‘Come be in our ads,’ ” said Fetterman, whose devotion to Braddock is symbolized by a large tattoo on his left arm of the town’s ZIP code, 15104.
“A lot of good has come from it,” he added, “and will continue to come from it.”
For instance, a young single mother who recently lost her job will appear in print ads and billboards, Fetterman said, and “the money she received helped out a lot.”
The campaign is to begin appearing July 4. There will also be digital ads and a presence in social media like Facebook.
The budget will be “a little above” what was spent in the first year of the campaign, Sweeny said. According to the Kantar Media unit of WPP, which tracks ad spending in major media, Levi Strauss spent $55.1 million to advertise Levi’s apparel last year, up 55.6 percent from the $35.4 million spent in 2008.
