So, naturally, as a poet and being a child of a world where punk rock is taken as a matter of course, as something that happened, my first thought was "FUCK. CONSUMERISM."
This is a standard reaction, mind you, and there is always a sort of low hum of that sentiment buzzing through my brain any time I watch TV, so that wasn't terribly uncommon. But the use of the poem, of course, is the thing that sets this particular commercial (set of commercials, I think, actually) apart.
The more I think about it, though, the more I think I like it. I grant you, I am not Whitman's biggest fan. But I definitely do not downplay his influence; the man basically invented American Poetry as we know it.
Here's what I like about it:
As poets, we sit apart from all other artists in most minds. The poem is not seen as a form of entertainment, it is a curiosity, mostly to be wondered about by other poets or by hipsters or would-be intellectuals hoping to impress a date in some dank coffeeshop or other. To say you are a poet is to immediately throw up a roadblock between yourself and anyone who hates (as all of us should) flowery, rhymey, greeting-cardy verses about butterflies and love and butterflies in love, to say nothing of dead-flowery, often-rhymey verses about self-pity and love and the love of self-pity.
The poem, at some point, wandered down a different road than all other forms of art. we don't sell tickets to poetry readings. no one hangs a broadside in their home. no one has dylan thomas on their ipod. No one reads poems or listens to poems purely for their enjoyment, but only when they have to, or when they have something to prove.
[As I make this point, I naturally concede that there are exceptions to this rule, myself being one, maybe you are another. However, I think it's safe to say this fairly well sums up the general attitude towards the art of poetry -- certainly among the general public, but even, in my experience at least, among those who are otherwise in tune with "the arts"]
But here, in this commercial, we see the poem set with images of young attractive people having sexy adventures. The poem, here, is a soundtrack, used the same way you would use a piece of music! Here, we see a poem placed on an even plane with other forms of art: as something to be utilized, to be combined with other art forms, and yes, even to be exploited for commercial gain. After all, truly great art is hardly immune to commercialization. Lord knows I've heard plenty of favored songs chopped up and shoehorned into 30 seconds of awkward pitchmanship.
Poetry has been too removed from pop culture for too long. If we, the poets, are ever to feel that there is any point to what we do, we cannot deny that we need external validation.
And perhaps most importantly, Whitman himself would've liked it, I think. His initial edition of Leaves of Grass was designed to fit in a pocket, he wanted it to be read in the open air, to be carried with the reader as a part of daily life -- as we now carry our laptops or smartphones. And if there was one thing old Walt loved, it was attractive people having sexy adventures. (There even appears to be a gay couple embracing romantically, if you watch close enough.)
And, goddammit, there are really some nice visuals paired with the poem. It's just a successful little piece of filmmaking all around.
But then again, for all this rabble it has roused in me, one thing it does not inspire in me is a desire to go buy a pair of Levi's jeans. So who knows?
