Yesterday, Mashable featured a piece on a new video where a “Guy Walks Across America” that is quickly hitting viral status. At first glance, it seems like a project that can be considered a work of art. I have a hunch that this may be a subtle marketing campaign, but you be the judge:
Did you catch it? Do you think this could possibly be a paid advertisement by Levis Jeans? If you did not catch it at the end, I suggest you click back to 1:30 into the video and watch for a second time.
After browsing through hundreds of comments, I did not see a single one that mentions anything about the brand. Is the shot too subtle, a fluke? The camera made a clear attempt to focus in on the back pocket that is marked with the classic red Levis tag and pocket design.
well, I'm going to go with branding.
Conscious Minds Productions created the video, and they claim their services are:
-Branded Entertainment
-Web-series
-Corporate Media
-TV/Web Commercials
they also list Levi's as one of their clients: http://www.consciousminds.net/work.html
It's clever, it's subtle, and I like it. This pushing-the-limits or technology and budget to produce unique, entertaining, and memorable advertising speak FAR MORE than formulaic TV spots or magazine ads. Show me how your product is exceptional, don't show me how it's the same as everybody else's.
Jeans are jeans, but if you want to sell me jeans based on the idea of aspiring to an adventurous & spontaneous lifestyle – then you have to show me those qualities through your advertising strategies as well.
Levi's has consistently had excellent design and really poured creativity into their campaigns, this makes me happy for them to see that they're taking the next logical step (and also using YouTube, mankind's richest and most accessible medium for 'advertainment')
I was thinking that he looks comfortable in what he's wearing! Too funny. How many t-shirt changes did he have 4? but he was wearing the same jeans for the entire “journey”. I will not buy Levis jeans any more after watching a documentary about the working conditions in their factories in China.