Levi's® has always led with its values of empathy, originality, integrity and courage – and these values serve as the foundation for this unique creative collaboration between Levi’s® and artist and filmmaker Oge Egbuonu, who first worked with Levi’s® on their VOTE campaign PSA (Fall 2020), and who made her directorial debut in 2020 with (In)visible Portraits, a documentary described as a “love letter to Black women.”

Levi’s® has long championed equality and justice. In 1960, Levi’s® desegregated its factory at Blackstone, Virginia, four years before the passage of the Civil Rights Act. In 1992, Levi’s® was one of the first major corporations to offer healthcare benefits to domestic partners, including same sex partners. This year Levi’s® wanted to celebrate stories of triumph and achievement. With ‘Beauty of Becoming,’ Oge created a film series -- both inspiring and motivating -- by challenging us all to be our most authentic selves.

The centerpiece of the film is a custom, floral labyrinth that serves as a unique metaphor for life’s journey. The talent walks the labyrinth in various Levi’s® clothing, deep in reflection as their journey unfolds in imagery of their younger selves interspersed with artistic, introspective close-ups. The floral labyrinth was conceptualized by Oge, and is a representation of the many twists and turns of life, and was created by Bloom & Plume’s Maurice Harris. The film also features original music by Phantogram, original poetry by Aja Monet and movement by Nana Yaa.

This is complemented by a Q&A with the filmmaker, where the talent sits within an ornate gold frame, inspired by Lorraine O’Grady’s Art Is... Here, they speak wisdom and encouragement to their 14 year-old self, sharing in the knowledge and experience they’ve acquired through their life’s journey. And everyone featured tells a personal story of the

Reframe what Levi’s® values mean through original storytelling, with a focus on highlighting key movements currently affecting social change globally including Social Justice & Racial Equality, Women’s Equality, Sustainability and LGBTQI+ Justice. Then, identify public figures who align with these key pillars and tell their stories, building empathy and conveying the culture, history and values that unite people. Demystify these stories by sharing their unique yet relatable narratives. Inspire viewers and consumers to embody these values by taking action in their own lives, and embarking on their own journey of “Becoming.”

Released to coincide with Black History Month 2021 and rollout through June 2021, the Beauty of Becoming series launched with the long-form hero film and :15 cutdown on Levi.com, Levi’s® email blast, homepage overlay, app scrolling editorial, Levi’s® Off the Cuff Blog, Levi’s® YouTube, Levi’s® Instagram, Levi’s® Twitter, earned and paid media, support on talent social channels and exclusive conversations with talent and media to kick off each month. The launch was followed by ancillary films focused on individual talent and rolling out each month through June, celebrating key moments: Black History Month, Women’s History Month, Sustainability, and Pride Month. All content included captions, transcript and all in-feed posts on Instagram included visual descriptions to increase its accessibility for viewers of all backgrounds and abilities.

This film series has surpassed and outperformed all previous brand PR moments (i.e. Coachella).

-353+ Stories

-6,483,482,976+ in Media Impressions

-$94,172,077.59+ in Media Value.

145M paid impressions and 69M views, delivering 27% VCR for YouTube Masthead TrueView, significantly beating YouTube’s benchmark of 5-10% for videos over 2 min.

Digital paid media resulted in 145M paid impressions and 69M video views delivered.

For 2 months in a row (Jan/Feb) Beauty of Becoming was the top performing and most visited blog for Levi’s Off the Cuff.