FCB West, MJZ Tell Levi’s Fans to Get Personal (But Not Boring)

The latest spot for Levi’s, created by FCB West/The House Worldwide and MJZ, imagines a personal relationship between each pair of denim pants and its owner.

Every pair tells a story, see…and all the jeans ask of you, consumer, is that you keep things interesting.

The pants-as-lifestyle-accessory theme marks a shift from the Wieden+Kennedy “Go Forth” campaign, which turned existential with the help of one Charles Bukowski.

You may recall that Levi’s announced an agency change back in February, and we can expect more in the vein of this spot to come. Yesterday Fast Company called the effort “more inclusive, and more mainstream”, and FCB CCO Eric Springer emphasized the break from the W+K aesthetic, saying:

“The first step was to get the brand voice back and make everyone know it’s their brand once again…It’s not a comeback tour. It’s a forever tour.”

The company’s own CMO emphasized the social components that will (hopefully) involve lots of people documenting the shared journey of themselves and their jeans.

Three words, then: User. Generated. Content.

(more…)

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W+K, Maxwell House Shoot for Good, Not Great

In a world with Starbucks at every corner and small, fancy artisinal coffee shops sprouting up everywhere, it would be counterproductive for an instant coffee brand to try to compete. So W+K starts a different conversation for Maxwell House, asking, “Whatever happened to good?”

The new “Say Good Morning to a Good Day” campaign features a series of broadcast and web spots centering around an affable, middle-aged everyman (everydad?) who laments that with all the attention on phrases like “Awesome,” “Amazing,” and “That’s epic, bro!” people have forgotten about “good.” In the 30-second spot, he goes on to explain that good is “Swinging to get on base” or “choosing not to overshoot the moon, but instead to land right on it.” This all makes “good” seem pretty appealing, with the spot ending with the resurrected “Good to the Last Drop” tagline.

While some may question the choice of admitting your product isn’t “amazing,” the strategy makes sense for Maxwell House, whose coffee is, at best, “good enough,” and whose best bet is to convince the older generation that all the fuss over fancy coffee just isn’t worth it. W+K pull off the execution really well, making the “good” approach about as persuasive as it can be. Credits after the jump. continued…

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