The Good Gray Poet touting Levi's?

Walt Whitman endorsing Levi's? Say it ain't so, Walt? I'm sure you've seen these ads. I won't comment on them - read this article from Slate.com.

Whether it's Michael Jordan's Nike's or Elizabeth Taylor perfume, celebrities moonlighting as Madison Avenue hawkers is as common as...well, as poop. The public's affinity for coveting products touted by a favored actor or athlete says, I think, more about people's desperation to live their lives through someone else's than it does about the celebrity making a buck.

I'm a big fan of Whitman's - my favorite poet. Being a writer and having worked as an advertising agency copywriter, I understand the creative nudge for wanting to marry Whitman's poetry with a product like Lev's - a product engrained in Americana as much as Whitman is engrained in America's literary history. But I'm also leery of making Walt a spokesperson for a product without his permission. I get the public domain thing. Still...well, you be the judge. Levi's began this campaign this past summer; the commercial above contains a snippet of "Pioneers! O Pioneers!". The commercial in the Slate.com article uses portion of Whitman's, "America". It's thought that the voiceover in the "America" spot is an actual recording of Whitman's voice.

Levi's were around when Whitman was alive. It's likely he may have even worn a pair or two.