I have been thinking all week about what being brave really means to me. Do I consider myself brave, well, yes and no. It is all relative. I think I am brave in certain instances, and at other times I am a punk ass bitch.. — but in all seriousness, truly being brave is much more than just jumping out of a plane, or diving off a cliff. Spontaneous things like that embrace your bravery, but to be brave, in my opinion is about much more than an out of the ordinary action.
With this in mind I started looking to the past, and the history of Levi’s. Levi’s was essentially established because of the brave individuals who went west in an attempt to provide for their families and make money in the gold mining business. Before you try to say they were just trying to get rich, think about it, the actual miners were there to work, and that is who wore the jeans.
Thinking about how hard these men worked made me think about my brothers. And while I cannot compare the hard work of the gold miners to what my brothers do, they both have jobs that require extreme bravery.
My brother Nathan (whom I hate to admit I am very much like..) is frankly a hot mess; he is and always has been one crazy boy, but always the life of the party. He is also a HARD worker. For the past two years he has spent half of each year in Alaska, on a commercial fishing boat, netting Salmon. He literally worked 18 hour days.. and that would be what he would say was an easy day. He worked in extremely dangerous situations day in and day out, and I have never once heard him complain. I mean he usually only set foot on land one or two days a month, that INSANE – but Brave..
My other brother, Jeremy, is the “all American hero” type. He is the head of Ocean Rescue for Wrightsville Beach, NC 7 Months of the year, and a Full- Time Fire Fighter the other 5 Months. He has put himself in deaths hands MANY times, and never looks back, just makes sure he saves the person in need. He also owns a Mixed Martial Arts Gym, which he opened a few years ago with help from his former Sensi Renato “Charuto” Verissimo, and friend B.J Penn.. pretty good guys to know if you’re trying to open a MMA gym.. But in addition to working hard and being brave every day, he is also a black belt Jiu-Jitsu instructor and all around great guy. He would literally give you the shirt off his back.
To me they represent bravery ( I hope they never read this! I might lose “baby sister” bargaining leverage if they know I actually look up to them! )
This being said — LEVI’S — What does my rambling have to do with it.
Well all this thought made me think of a pretty neat concept for a commercial. While it has sort of been done before – usually the Levi’s commercials that highlight the brave and tough hard workers, show these men working while wearing their jeans.
Well, sometimes these types of jobs are not conducive to wear jeans while performing. So I thought it would be cool to go a different direction.
– While is not a 3 part story, I feel that it doesn’t need to be – It is not meant to be a problem solving type of advertisement. Instead I view it as a tribute to the hard, honest, brave workers in America.
The commercial should start flashing to different scenes of men (AND WOMEN) working hard at different jobs — the clips would probably be best in low color saturation, with the sound of the jobsite as the main background noise of each clip. I picture using firefighters, police officers, lifeguards, security, fishermen, farmers, miners, oil workers, bridge repairers, military personal — obviously it wouldn’t have time to highlight all of these professions, but It would be professions that show men and women that really work in dangerous courageous jobs, that make our lives easier, but usually don’t receive the credit and acknowledgement due to them.
After these emotional shots, the next segments would show they same workers, this time in Levi’s — but in a different settings– at home – or at a cookout with friends, or playing with their kids… all kinds of personal – traditional – relaxation activities..
The purpose — or message that should somehow be conveyed would be —
Levi’s, Traditions Help You Transition —
Meaning that the comfort of blue jeans and the American tradition of wearing them, help you shift from the hard mentally draining work, to enjoying what life has to offer.
Here are some pictures of my brothers — I think I am going to try to sketch out or make graphically a story board for this commercial as well, but we shall see, I have already spent about an hour thinking and writing.
Above is Nate in Alaska last year – Below is Jeremy at his Gym Evolution MMA.
Kama's Mind On Jeans 