Whitman, Levi's, Advertising, & Poetry

OR: Leaves of Ads? Ads of Grass? I got nothin'...

Aside from the fourth of July, nothing makes me feel more happy to be American than the first Sunday after Labor Day; the opening day of the NFL season (I refuse to admit that Thursday is now the opening day) when I typically spend the entire day watching (and reveling in) football. It was during one of these games when I saw the “America” Whitman ad for the first time, and I was floored at how awesome it was. I remember thinking at the time, “wow. This is a great ad, but I don’t think very many people are going to appreciate it.” The second “O Pioneers” ad is great too, but I’d like to focus on the “America” ad 1) because it uses the actual wax recording of Whitman reading his poem, and 2) because I saw it first and it elicited my initial “wow” response.


Levi’s ran the ad in order to cement itself as the quintessential American product, and by running it during the opening weekend of football, it also wanted cement itself as the quintessential product Americans are proud of. Companies like McDonald’s and Chevrolet may evoke “Americanism” more than Levi’s, but the quality of those companies’ products doesn’t necessarily evoke pride anymore. Levi’s associated itself with Whitman’s poetry (and by using the original wax recording, Whitman himself) and football, thus making it appeal to America’s sense of pride. In doing so, it makes Levi’s jeans seem traditional yet youthful, stylish yet functional, fashionable yet accessible. I have to say, as far as I’m concerned, no company has had a more effective ad campaign than Levi’s, with Nike and Old Spice tied for second.

Aside from the ad’s effectiveness, however, I’d like to point out where the imagery in the ad echoes the Whitman’s poetry in Leaves of Grass. First, we have the subjects in the commercial all comfortable with their bodies. As Whitman says in lines 49 and 50 of Leaves of Grass, “[w]elcome is every organ and attribute of me, and of every man hearty and clean. Not an inch nor a particle of an inch is vile, and none shall be less familiar than the rest.” The people in the ad running, flipping, and flexing, seem to revel in their own bodies, exuding not only vitality, but a sense of comfortableness in their bodies and skin.

Second, we have this unifying sense that the poem/ad speaks to everyone. In the “America” ad, as Whitman says “centre of equal daughters, equal sons, all” the ad shows a young black girl in the inner city juxtaposed with an embattled CEO. The ad takes two Americans, seemingly on opposite ends of the racial/cultural/socioeconomic/age spectrum, and relates them to each other through Whitman’s words and the mood each is facing. This has the similar effect to Whitman’s “cataloging” from lines 257 to 346 of Leaves of Grass, as he lists all types of Americans in order to emphasize a uniting quality of the American spirit.

Finally, we have imagery of grass itself. The ad shows a young girl picking her way through waist high grass, two boys playing in grass obscured from view of two older men sitting in chairs, more boys running and flipping through tall grass, and a landscape pan over tall fields. These multiple images conjure Whitman’s parallel of grass and hope, as he writes in Leaves of Grass, “…What is the grass? […] I guess it must be the flag of my disposition, out of hopeful green stuff woven” (90-92). The director of the ad arguably encompasses the spirit of Whitman completely, and does so in only one minute.

A lot of people have commented on how the ads cheapen Whitman’s poetry and the American spirit, but I am not in that camp. I really have no problem with advertisements using artistic means of playing on a person’s ethos, pathos, or logos to convey a corporate image or to imply a feeling of happiness to be attained through purchasing a product or service. Consumerism, with all of its faults and qualities, is a fundamental part of American society. I feel it is a little presumptuous to label something as negative simply because it promotes capitalism.

I do, however, argue with the point made in the assigned blog reading which asserts that “[a]dvertising has taken up what Whitman thought was the poet’s job” (McCracken). While consumerism is a huge part of America, there is still an element of “untainted” spirit of the poet in American culture. I would argue that musicians, not advertising, have taken up the Whitman mantle. People like Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen, Kurt Cobain, and Tupac Shakur are the icons of American spirit, and while Cap’n Crunch and Mr. Clean may be just as famous as these musicians, the influence of certain songwriters is more of a driving force of cultural change than advertising. While advertising may be inherently American, music is where we see the inherent American spirit that Americans can be proud of. Advertising agencies are cultural mirrors, not, as McCracken claims, “the active inventors of American culture.”