Go Forth

I was about to write about the postal service, in light of their proposed rate hike, but when I went to the New York Times to read up on the announcement, I found this ad.
I usually ignore the banner ads, but this ad was clearly a part of Levi's (Levi's'? grammar police, please advise) "Go Forth" series, which I found via Slate's Adwatch column. The video profiled is, as Seth Stevenson writes, inspiring. I really like this ad, and the newest entry in the campaign does not disappoint. This pair of ads, and the "Go Forth" campaign in general, bring up a few issues:

I. Commie Pants

Once I was at the Levi's site, I found We Are All Workers, the first part in a series chronicling Levi's financial investment in Braddock, PA, the town featured in "To Work." The title of the series sounds like a communist propaganda slogan, and the font, while perhaps intended to evoke Depression-era America, also evokes Soviet posters.
Once, in Mike Tratner's Movies and Mass Politics class, Tratner asked "How many of you are wearing blue jeans?" A large majority of the class was. "That," he said, "is because America encourages everyone to think of themselves as working-class, and blue jeans began as working-class pants." 

Levi's is tapping into this American myth. The earlier pieces of the "Go Forth" campaign cast the wearers of Levi's as early-American pioneers. Now, paralleling U.S. history, the ad campaign turns loyal customers into workers. Frontiers get a shoutout, but the ads are much more explicitly about work.
The disconnect is that America's knee-jerk anti-communism co-exists with a national founding myth that rejects aristocracy and privileges the working class.

II. Authenticity
I said this above, but I really like these ads. Blue jeans, Americana, beautiful art-house-style filmmaking, poetry--all right up my alley. I am the target market. Seth Stevenson, in his piece for Slate, brings up my first (and least pressing) concern: do the ads sell jeans? The fact that the campaign still exists suggests that they do. As commenter RapidThinningRedhead writes on youtube: "...It's not about jeans. It's about an idea. Levi's is a lifestyle brand."
(more on lifestyle brands)
My second concern is more ideological. As youtube commenter MrUrbanExplorer says just above RapidThinningRedhead: "levis jeans are made in china.
its [sic] like these corporations are laughing in our faces.
pioneers oh pioneers make sure you check the tag on the jeans before you buy[.]"
Of course, Levi's is investing in Braddock, PA. But it seems like their activism not helping for the sake of helping, but helping for the sake of creating an inspiring narrative for their ad campaign.
Don't get me wrong, I love an inspiring narrative, but it seems such a shame that these ads, which trade on authenticity (the clothes are dirty; the people are not (all) models) would involve an effort that is so transparently for advertising's sake.
I forget, though, that this is advertising we're talking about.

BONUS ROUND: In an effort to boost their Americana credibility, Levi's released (for free!) a series of recordings from popular artists as "Levi's Pioneer Sessions: Today's Artists, Yesterday's Tracks." The recordings are all right, but the song choices seem somewhat off-brand. A few of them aren't even American and none of them (that I've listened to) evoke the Dust Bowl look of the Go Forth campaign. That said, free music from some pretty good names is not to be sniffed at.