"Death to tyranny" reads one of the t-shirts offered from right wing radio host Glenn Beck's new denim and clothing brand, 1791. The tyranny shirt is sold, online only, alongside jeans and other message shirts with shallow, jingoistic messages of Americana including cherry trees and Native Americans. All products are, of course, made in America.

The 1791 brand, which launched as a charity clothing line 11 months ago, is the latest extension of a dwindling Beck empire. It is also the latest brand line from a right wing radio host looking to leverage popularity to fill his own pockets. The problem for Beck's particular endeavor is that the market is currently filled with a glut of Tea Party-focused products.Continue reading...

Gap isn't the only apparel brand getting its dance on. Check out Levi's latest videos: for Curve ID, above, and featuring dancer Maybelline Wong, below.Continue reading...

The Levi's brand fall campaign suggests getting dressed is an empowering action, continuing its message for the fourth year of “Go Forth,” and adding, “This is a pair of Levi’s.” 

The 2012 fall/winter "Go Forth" campaign pitches 18 to 34 year-olds on donning their daily armor to take on the world every day: “This is a pair of Levi’s, buttons and rivets and pockets and cuffs, and the thread that holds it together.”

The language is a call to action: “You follow your heart, follow the leader, you’re the leader. Are you joking, are you breaking, are you shaking? You’re the next living leader of the world. You’re a kid. Holding onto the thread. That holds it together. This is a pair of Levi’s.” Cue Twitter hashtag, “#GoForth.” And Levi's own call to action, tying a thread to its corporate commitment to take a stance on HIV/AIDS.Continue reading...

For a few years, Levi’s has been telling America and then, the world, to go forth, speak out, raise a ruckus, and, while you’re at it, buy some Levi’s. It’s all part of that idea of the jeans-wearing rebel America that was borne out of the Sixties.

Levi's Go Forth campaign launched in 2009 on the Fourth of July, the celebration of one of America’s greatest speak-truth-to-power moments. But this year, the Fourth came and went without Levi’s going forth and marketing. But just when you were at the tail end of your dismay, the San Francisco-based denim giant is delivering.Continue reading...

For the last three years, Levi’s has been urging Americans, and then last year the world in its first ever global campaign, to “Go Forth” and make a difference. Be a Pioneer! Work Hard! Be Brave!

Since then, the leaders and governments of Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen have all been overthrown and plenty of other countries throughout the globe have experienced change. Levi’s probably isn’t responsible for this, but it did hold back its 2011 commercial in the UK for a bit because it would have originally launched right in the middle of riots in England and that wouldn’t have been the most brilliant PR move.

Maybe because it’s an election year. Maybe it doesn’t want to rabble rouse during the Olympics. Maybe the company is afraid of its own power. Or maybe (more likely) the campaign has run its course and the company just wanted to put its dollars elsewhere. Whatever its reasons, Levi’s has decided to not run its “Go Forth” campaign this year for the first time since it launched in 2009 on Independence Day.Continue reading...

Howard Schultz is at it again. This time, the increasingly outspoken founder and CEO of Starbucks has issued a Fourth of July rallying cry, in the form of a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal calling for nothing less than the restoration of the American dream.

The brand's new coming-together campaign, called Indivisible, echoes the slogan on the fundraising wristbands for its Create Jobs for USA campaign that launched last November, while giving it a political voice in the U.S. election being decided this coming November.Continue reading...

The London riots, remember them? Yeah, a lot of other Americans don't either. But one of those Americans is not Glenn Beck, the popular and controversial right wing radio and TV entertainer.

After Levi's 2011 "Go Forth" commercial ran during ESPN's Monday Night Football, Beck slammed the brand for a commercial that “glorifies revolution” and swore them off for life.

Levi's responded by letting the ad run again two nights later during the premiere of FOX's highly anticipated The X Factor. Maybe Beck was right, and Levi's is promoting a certain kind of revolution after all... one against whatever Glenn Beck stands for these days.Continue reading...

Levi Strauss is working hard to make itself a global brand. To that end, Levi’s has been beefing up its human capital, the better to bring its global campaign and corporate citizenship message to the world.

The brand just hired Beto Guajardo from Avon to serve as global VP of strategy, following its recent hiring of Rebecca Van Dyck as global CMO, a marketing whiz who Bloomberg reports “led Nike Inc.’s ‘Just Do It’ campaign and helped Apple make the iPhone a best-seller,” to help revive the Levi’s brand.

“I had always worn Levi’s, but they sort of drifted away in my mind,” said Van Dyck, who was wearing Levi’s (of course) and prefers to go by "Becca," to Bloomberg's reporter. “I want us to be present and show up and be confident, and that’s going to be appealing to young people as well as old people who grew up with Levi’s.”Continue reading...