Irony in denim

Levi’s has a new commercial for their Wrangler jeans which shows an American flag waving and the soundtrack is an old Sixties song. The lyric goes like this: “Some folks are born made to wave the flag, ooh, the red, white, and blue…“ I suppose it’s meant to tap into the patriotic spirit in America today and to equate it with Levi’s as an old American tradition.

Unfortunately, the next lyric of the song (which isn’t included in the ad) is “Not me, not me.“ See, it’s a protest song and was sung as an “anti-patriotic” song. “Some people are patriotic and love their country, but not me, so don’t send me to fight in Vietnam,“ was the sentiment. Do you think any of the Boomers at Levi’s and their ad agency thought about what the song meant before using it? Was it a subtle dig at the current wave of patriotism? Or did they just fail to remember (or listen to) the whole song?