"Go Forth" Response Ian Barbour

Ian Barbour
English 100 A
Anna Wolf
January 1st 2010


Interpreting Advertisements


In Levi's advertisement “Go Forth” it is immediately clear that there is a powerful message behind the minute long jeans commercial far bigger then the brand of jeans. It starts off with a huge neon sign that says “AMERICA”, fireworks go off over the sign. Right away you can tell that the commercial is using the audiences love of America to sell their product, as well as encourage the ideal that it is the greatest place in the world. Then an audio recording starts playing and it shows images of slums and poor areas and then a businessman. Then it shows both sides of all things, it states “grown” and shows a big successful city, then it says “ungrown” and shows a poor area and continues on like this, all the while showing all races and different looking people inhabiting these areas. In all of these areas the patriotic fireworks continue. The commercial is sending a message to the viewers that all types of people can prosper in this beautiful land of America. It then shows a white women and a black man kissing which supports their message of diversity and is powerful through being perhaps slightly controversial, at least in a more conservative/ old fashion view. It wraps up the commercial by showing the AMERICA sign again and then people running with a cloth that states “go forth” and then finally in the last seconds it pops up the name Levi's. Overall the commercial like many others, is selling the American dream and focuses mostly on the great diversity in America and then at the very end ties this into buying their brand of jeans. Also the advertisement had a very old fashion feel, the entire commercial was in black and white and the audio recording was by an old American poet Walt Whitman this old fashion style sorta comes to send the message that America has always wanted this and now you can have it, buy Levi's. The ad is truly a masterpiece with only a minute of audio text they have created a message of power of diversity and the power to move forth past our original discrimination's and begin a new, in this land of opportunity. The audience is expected to know the history of America and it's problems it's had with discrimination in the past and all of the progress we have made. My only real issue with the advertisement is that it really has nothing to do with jeans, they didn't even try to make a connection, they just put together an inspiring clip and then slapped in their logo at the very end.