Watch This: Cary Fukunaga's Levi's Commercial
Filed under: Trailers and Clips
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Ever since newbie writer-director Cary Fukunaga stormed this past Sundance Film Festival, taking the Best Director award for his fantastic film Sin Nombre (read my review here), I've been itching to see what the guy does next. While he's probably busy working on projects as part of deals with both Focus Features and Universal Pictures, it looks like Fukunaga carved out enough time to direct a commercial for Levi's 'Go Forth' campaign.
The commercials (there are two in total, with one directed by Lying helmer M. Blash) use Walt Whitman poems ("America", "O Pioneer") in a voiceover to illustrate the spirited adventure and liveliness of today's American youth, "but also to refresh and reinvent the idea of a pioneering spirit for the times in which we live," according to creative director Susan Hoffman. Fukunaga directed the "America" commercial, while Blash helmed the "O Pioneer" spot. The ads themselves are pretty unique and fun, and they're shot beautifully; it's stuff like this that has me itching to see what sort of sandbox Fukunaga will play in next. Sin Nombre, which follows the intertwining stories of three teenagers set against a backdrop full of people riding atop trains in the hopes of crossing the Mexico/U.S. border, is now available on DVD and I highly recommend checking it out if you haven't seen it yet. I also suggest watching it in conjunction with the documentary Which Way Home, now airing on HBO.
Watch both Levi's commercials after the jump.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
9-28-2009 @ 12:03PM
Ben Collins said...
You have yr facts wrong. M. Blash directed the "O Pioneers" commercial. He is repped my The Director's Bureau and you can check their website for clarification.
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9-28-2009 @ 12:55PM
Erik Davis said...
Thanks for clarifying -- YouTube claims Cary directed both. I've fixed the post.
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9-28-2009 @ 4:53PM
sa said...
i had a football game on in the background yesterday as we were hanging out/cleaning, etc and this ad played. while my kids (6 & 10) weren't paying attention to the game, even they were instantly riveted by this ad.
for me, it was one of those weird moments i think we've all had. i was like "whoa, this is really interesting and creative." it gets your full attention but, strangely, there is no hint as to it's purpose. then, as soon as the "levi's" logo appeared at the end, i immediately, & admittedly rather cynically, dismissed the whole thing as corporate nonsense. wouldn't have given it a second thought if i hadn't seen this article.
another example of this is a self-promotion ad that runs on mtv's HD music channel "Palladia". Its a long b&w segment of trees and crows morphing into each other. impressive art that ends with a corporate logo that is also jarringly disparate from the art itself...
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9-28-2009 @ 6:35PM
Kate said...
As much as it's a bummer to miss out on all the short films being made today, commercials have gotten really creative this decade. I don't know if I'd ever buy Levi's jeans, but this is a great commercial. I know Ghostbot does the Esurance commercials, and the outstanding Joanna Quinn does the Charmin Bears, but I'm curious to know who does Redbull.
It's cool to see high profile artists doing cool commercials. Any other big names we know doing this stuff?
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11-16-2009 @ 7:10AM
james marr said...
I think the new Levi commercials are horrible. Levi really screwed up with these. they really make no sense. I'm sorry, but they're just stupid!
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