Skip to main contentWe could probably explain this better if we had a chalkboard and a pipe, but Glenn Beck has spun the roulette wheel of his paranoid ire and landed on... Wieden + Kennedy.
On his Wednesday radio show, Beck announced a boycott against Levi's jeans in response to the latest commercial in the "Go Forth" campaign produced by W+K's Portland branch. The ad, filmed in Berlin, features kids gathering for street protests (and piloting boats made out of dining-room tables) under the narration of a Charles Bukowski poem, "The Laughing Heart."
Beck: not laughing.
"I can't believe I'm saying this," he said, without apparent irony. "I love Levi's. Never again, Levi's, never again will you get a dime from me. I know you're not disappointed. Never again. I won't wear your stupid red tab."
Beck's problem with the ads is not the floating of perfectly good hardwood furniture, or the possibility that kids in skinny jeans will follow the example of Bukowski and start drinking at 10 in the morning (from local evidence, they already are). No: He is upset by the juxtaposition of "global revolutions and progressivism" with pants. (Levi's: They put an Arab Spring in your step!)
His larger stance regarding global revolutions apparently depends on who is doing the revolting, but honestly it's a nice day outside and if you think we're going to waste it trying to hash out the inconsistencies of Glenn Beck, well, you're probably getting ready to leave a comment and good luck to you.
Wieden + Kennedy spokesfolks did not return our calls—but, considering the target demographics of this campaign, Beck's right: They can't be too heartbroken.
Here's the ad:
WWeek 2015