Levi's Terrifying Go Forth Campaign

This series of ads is truly creepy and personally, I'm a bit scared that Levi's would choose to express their first amendment rights in such a way. Instead of going on a rant about what is so wrong with these ads, I'll just quote the speech of the most disconcerting of them. The audio track is as follows.

"Pioneers! Oh pioneers! Come my tan faced children. Follow well in order. Get your weapons ready! Have you your pistols? Have you your sharp edged axes pioneers, oh pioneers? For we cannot tarry here! We must march my darlings. We must bear the brunt of danger! We, the youthful sinewy races, all the rest on us depend. Pioneers. Oh pioneers. All you youths, western youths. So impatient, full of action, full of manly pride and friendship. Plain I see you western youths. See you tramping with the foremost. Pioneers. Oh pioneers. We divouch upon a newer mightier world, varied world. Fresh and strong, the world we seize. Pioneers. Oh pioneers.


A quick google search revealed that this commercial took stanzas from a Walt Whitman poem. Taken out of context as it is, this bastardized version of the poem sounds nothing short of Hitler Youth propaganda. Creepy.

Verizon and AT&T map ads

When will the mudslinging end, Verizon? Both Comcast and AT&T have been positive in their ads except in some cases. Verizon, you continually try to criticize your opposition using unmeasurable claims such as "There's a map for that", poking fun at the Apple iPhone's, "There's an app for that." Now you've created a series of commercials showing a nationwide map of your coverage areas for 3g as compared to AT&T.

Here's my biggest question. Is this a national ad or have you localized it to the NE region? The reason I ask is because if this commercial is supposed to be localized, why do you show a national map? I'm fairly certain that if we took a poll of people living in this region, there would be only a rather small percentage who travel nationally on a fairly often basis. My point here is that if customers get 3g coverage and good signal strength in the local areas they usually travel, why should they care that your network has coverage in all those other cities and states?

In response to Verizon's claims, AT&T has now started slinging mud back, making claims about the functionality of Verizon's 3g network not being able to use data aps while talking on the phone. Also, they have hired a celebrity to discuss all the places AT&T does have 3g coverage, which is a whole heck of a lot of places according to the ad.

Come on guys. Quit the mudslinging aleady. Stop criticizing each other's phones. Apple has made a great product and I know it is scaring all you non-iPhone networks because of the customer base you've lost. All this criticism is not helping you. You cannot fight the 3000 lb juggernaut that is Apple, so stop trying. You need to find an innovative product that will win people back in a positive, non-critical way. Stop trying to make products that are just a laundry list of things your phone does that iPhone doesn't do.