I'd buy 'em

I actually like the way Whitman's work is portrayed in the ad campaigns. They take his work and give it a new age twist that I think fit's quite nicely with each selected piece. Many people will have no idea that Whitman's work is being used for the campaign but if they like what they hear and take the time to research it, they can soon find out. I think this also affectively gets many from the younger generation to take a look at literary works they generally wouldn't read or even know. We know because the majority of us are literature majors, even if it haddn't been assigned to us to read now, at some point prior or in the future we probalby would have read many of Whitman's works. But if we consider our peers, those either not in college or prusuing a different degree, many of them may only know Whitman by name and not by work. Levi's helps make many aware of the power Whitman has. Levi's helps keep works that are fading out of the mass population alive.

My personal reaction to it was shock and awe. Shocked that something so popular would dare to step out of the circle and use a powerful literary work in their ad campaign. And awe that they did it so well. It is obviously catered to the youth of America, twenty something's included it that. But also the older generation I think would be able to appreciate it, because more of them know not just who Whitman is, but would be able to know without research that the "Go Forth" ad campaign uses his work.

I especially liked the Oh Pioneers one. I thought the ad went well with the words. What we must remember is this was originally published in the mid 1800's. Levis took this old work, and added a new age twist to it. Something that many people probably had a problem with, but I think it is not only very effective I also think Whitman himself would have approved of the approach Levi's took.