Wrangler's 2024 campaign Good Mornings Make for Better Days marks its first global advertising push since 2021, directed by RSA Films' Jake Scott and launched
ARCHIVEWrangler Bets on Morning Optimism to Revive Its Global Denim Identity
Wrangler's "Good Mornings Make for Better Days" is a 2024 global brand campaign directed by Emmy-winning filmmaker Jake Scott of RSA Films, launched September 15 on NBC Sunday Night Football, celebrating the optimism of everyday early risers dressed in Wrangler denim across the United States and key European markets, according to Marketingdive.
Announced on September 12, 2024, according to Business Wire, the campaign marks Wrangler's first new global advertising effort since 2021, making it a significant strategic reset for the Kontoor Brands-owned denim label, according to Reel360. The work debuted during NBC's Sunday Night Football broadcast of the Chicago Bears versus Houston Texans game, a platform that guaranteed immediate mass reach across the United States before rolling out across TV, streaming video, social media, and audio channels in North America and key European markets.
The campaign was created and produced entirely in-house by Wrangler's own marketing and creative teams, a notable departure from conventional agency-led production, according to Businesswire. It builds on the emotional territory staked out by the brand's earlier "For the Ride of Life" series, but shifts the frame toward the ritual of the morning — the moment before the day begins, when pulling on a pair of Wrangler Jeans becomes an act of quiet intention. The featured cast wears a deliberate mix of timeless vintage pieces drawn from Wrangler's archives, classic Western styles, and new looks from the brand's 2024 Fall and Holiday collections. John Meagher, vice president of global marketing at Wrangler, described the campaign's central idea as one rooted in the brand's long-standing association with people who face each day with courage and optimism. The Clapboard Score for this campaign is 67 out of 100, reflecting competent craft and clear brand alignment tempered by limited creative risk-taking relative to the category's leading work.
Wrangler occupies a distinct position in the global denim market, one defined by authentic Western and American workwear heritage that competitors including Levi Strauss and Lee — the latter also owned by Kontoor Brands — address through different cultural registers. The strategic logic of "Good Mornings Make for Better Days" rests on reinforcing that distinction at a moment when the denim category is expanding with renewed momentum.
The global denim market was estimated at between 69 and 74 billion dollars in 2024, according to Expert Market Research and Research and Markets, with projected compound annual growth in the range of five percent. North America represents the largest regional share of that market, accounting for approximately a third of global revenue, according to Market Research Future. In the United States specifically, denim remains a wardrobe staple with strong cross-demographic penetration, and Wrangler's positioning as the choice of working men and women who rise early and face the day head-on speaks directly to a segment that premium fashion denim brands have historically underserved.
The timing of the campaign's launch on NBC's Sunday Night Football was itself a strategic signal, according to Glossy Co. As reported by Marketing Dive, the September 15, 2024 debut placed Wrangler alongside one of the highest-rated recurring broadcast properties in the United States, aligning the brand with a large, values-oriented American audience. In Multinational Europe, where Western Americana has carried sustained cultural currency in fashion and lifestyle categories, the campaign's imagery of open landscapes, vintage denim, and unhurried mornings translates readily across markets. Wrangler had last mounted a global campaign in 2021, and its 2022 "What a Ride" effort, which featured country artist George Strait and celebrated the brand's 75th anniversary, was a more narrowly targeted Americana play. "Good Mornings" extends the brand's reach by framing Western identity as a universal philosophy of optimism rather than a regional aesthetic.
Jake Scott directed "Good Mornings Make for Better Days" for RSA Films, bringing the sensibility of a career filmmaker to what is, in structure, a brand image campaign. Scott has directed feature films and music videos for artists including REM, Radiohead, and Tori Amos, and his approach to the Wrangler work reflects that background: unhurried compositions, an emphasis on texture and light, and a casting philosophy that favors authentic presence over conventional advertising polish.
Scott described the film as a heartfelt homage to the American West — a love letter to its people and to the iconic denim it inspired. That framing is evident in the production's visual grammar. Director of photography Chris Soos shot the campaign with an attention to morning light and worn surfaces that gives the imagery its sense of lived-in authenticity. Production designer Jason Hamilton built environments that feel archival rather than constructed, while costume designer Franck Chevalier drew on Wrangler's own archive to dress the cast in pieces that carry genuine history alongside selections from the 2024 Fall and Holiday collections.
The campaign's soundtrack anchors everything. Wrangler revived the 1970s hit "Jeans On" by David Dundas — a song whose title alone performs double duty as product reference and mood-setter — and the choice signals the brand's decades-long connection with music as a creative resource. Editor Akiko Iwakawa, working through post house Rock Paper Scissors, cut the film to the rhythm of that track, while colorist Yerlan Tanayev at The Mill in Los Angeles applied a grade that deepens the campaign's vintage warmth without tipping into nostalgia cliché. Executive producers Luke Ricci and Buddy Brakha oversaw production. The fact that the campaign was produced entirely in-house by Wrangler's marketing and creative teams — with RSA Films handling direction and production execution — represents an increasingly common hybrid model in fashion and apparel advertising, one that preserves brand control while accessing top-tier directorial talent.
ARCHIVENo independently verified third-party performance data for "Good Mornings Make for Better Days" is publicly available in terms of sales lift, streaming view counts, or brand tracking shifts. What the public record does confirm, as reported by MediaPost and Business Wire, is the campaign's scope and placement: a national broadcast debut during one of the most-watched properties on American television, followed by a sustained multi-channel rollout across TV, streaming, social media, and audio in the United States and across Multinational Europe.
Structurally, the campaign demonstrates several attributes that correlate with durable brand-building effectiveness. The decision to anchor the launch in NBC Sunday Night Football gave Wrangler immediate mass reach among a demographic — working Americans with an affinity for sport, country music, and outdoor life — that sits squarely within the brand's core. The revival of "Jeans On" by David Dundas provides a sonic device with genuine cultural provenance, avoiding the risk of original compositions that audiences have no prior relationship with. The in-house production model, as noted by Marketing Dive in its coverage of the campaign, reflects a broader industry shift toward brands reclaiming creative control as a means of accelerating production cycles and maintaining tonal consistency across channels.
The Clapboard Score of 67 out of 100 positions "Good Mornings Make for Better Days" as a capable and well-crafted campaign that succeeds in communicating Wrangler's core brand values with clarity and emotional warmth. The score reflects the campaign's genuine strengths — Jake Scott's direction, the archival costume work, the soundtrack strategy — while acknowledging that the creative idea, however well executed, operates within familiar Americana territory rather than expanding the brand's expressive range in ways that might score higher on originality and cultural impact metrics.
"Good Mornings Make for Better Days" is Wrangler's first global advertising campaign since 2021, directed by Jake Scott of RSA Films and launched September 15, 2024, on NBC Sunday Night Football. The campaign celebrates everyday optimism through Western Americana imagery, vintage denim styling, and the revived 1970s song "Jeans On" by David Dundas.
Jake Scott of RSA Films directed the campaign. Scott is an Emmy-winning filmmaker who has directed feature films and music videos for artists including REM, Radiohead, and Tori Amos. He described the Wrangler work as a love letter to the American West and its people, drawing on his personal connection with the brand.
Wrangler launched the campaign on September 15, 2024, during NBC's Sunday Night Football broadcast of the Chicago Bears versus Houston Texans game in the United States. The campaign subsequently ran across TV, streaming video, social media, and audio in North America and key European markets, according to Business Wire.
The campaign's soundtrack is "Jeans On" by David Dundas, a hit from the 1970s. Wrangler revived the track as the creative starting point for the campaign, reflecting the brand's decades-long connection with music. The song's title doubles as a direct product reference and establishes the campaign's tone of unhurried, optimistic morning energy.
The campaign was created and produced in-house by Wrangler's own marketing and creative teams, with RSA Films handling direction and production execution. No external advertising agency was credited. Director of photography Chris Soos, editor Akiko Iwakawa, and colorist Yerlan Tanayev at The Mill in Los Angeles contributed key production roles.
The Clapboard Score for "Good Mornings Make for Better Days" is 67 out of 100. The score recognises Jake Scott's assured direction, the archival costume approach, and the soundtrack strategy as genuine strengths, while reflecting that the campaign's creative idea operates within established Americana conventions rather than breaking new expressive ground for the Wrangler brand.
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