Timberland wants to give liars the boot—a comfy boot, that is, and shoes too, with anti-fatigue technology, so folks won’t have to invent ridiculous excuses when their tired, aching feet make them goof up in the workplace.
There’s a better way to do nothing, according to a new star-studded campaign from boot and shoe company Ugg.
Academy Award winner Jeff Bridges and New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady anchor a series of ads set in a posh Los Angeles living room, relaxing in their wool-lined slippers, and looking great while they’re at it.
Ever since Lipton’s Brisk Iced Tea abandoned its inescapable ’90s “That’s Brisk, Baby!” ad campaigns from J. Walter Thompson that featured claymation celebrities, its marketing has focused almost entirely on attracting urban teens by collaborating with street artists. These campaigns have included everything from custom iced tea cans to interactive murals to Brisk Bodega pop-up shops focused on art and music and even a dedicated Tumblr blog.
To help launch one of its newest flavors, Pineapple Passionfruit, Brisk continues its run of urban-themed stunts by going after the trendy and loose-with-cash sneakerhead market.
The PepsiCo-owned brand tapped sneaker artist Dan “Mache” Gamache of Mache Custom Kicks (whose clients include the likes of LeBron James and Kanye West) to design the first-ever Brisk sneakers. But as with Nike’s recent Krispy Kreme shoes, Mache will be customizing only a few pairs of the sneakers, as the brand feels that “keeping these kicks super rare taps into the culture of sneaker hunting.”
Converse’s Chuck Taylor II All-Stars debut with a bang, literally, in the Nike brand’s “Ready for More” campaign touting its highly anticipated line extension.
Ad agency Anomaly and visual-effects firm Framestore produced an explosive spot that shows a Chuck II high-top flying apart in super-slow-motion, impressively revealing the comfort technology within. As bits of rubber and canvas drift in all directions, the camera lingers on the padded sockliner, non-slip tongue and perforated suede lining, with each component identified for viewers.
Ultimately, the sneaker comes back together like new, which probably wouldn’t happen if you blew one up for real. (Still, I’d be glad to give it a try.)
It’s a cool, memorable way to expose the soul (along with the sole) of the reboot. I prefer its destructive simplicity to the bombast of a 30-second online spot that offers throbbing guitar riffs and cascading imagery of city skateboarders, motorcyclists, painters and rock bands, all wearing Chuck IIs. Reminds me of Dr. Martens’ anti-establishment appeals, with fast beats and flashy editing standing in for substance.
Of course, Converse does have street cred in the creative community. Its footwear has long been popular with artists and musicians. Anomaly’s recent “Made by You” push for classic Chucks scored by exploring the unique worlds of such individuals, showcasing both average folks and celebrities. This approach would have been a fine fit for the Chuck II, and hopefully the campaign will eventually step in that direction.
For now, we’re stuck with hipster clichés and a voiceover extolling, “More good stuff. More bad stuff. More your stuff. Whatever it is—more you!”
Sorry, Chuck, but it’s all a tad II much.
A year ahead of its centennial, footwear brand Keds is launching a global brand platform and fall 2015 ad campaign around female empowerment, and has gotten one of the world’s great trailblazing women, Taylor Swift, to headline it.
Print ads from kirshenbaum bond senecal + partners show the pop star, 25, posing against artistic backdrops with headlines like “All dressed up with everywhere to go” and “There’s no such thing as an average girl.” The tagline is, “Ladies first since 1916.”
Click the ads to enlarge.
“A new generation of women has been leading an exciting cultural shift redefining the conversation about equality and female empowerment,” Keds president Chris Lindner said in a statement.
“Keds was originally created in 1916 to provide ladies with accessible, fashionable footwear to allow them to be who they wanted to be, and go where they wanted to go. ‘Ladies First’ is a celebration of amazing women like Taylor Swift who are blazing new trails every day. From CEOing to BFFing, these ladies are doing it all.”
The campaign features other female talent, both on and off camera. In addition to a few other models, the ads employed notable female artists to make the backdrops—including illustrator Priscilla White, surface artist and pattern designer Kendra Dandy, and street artist Paige Smith.
Keds said the combination of poppy, street-style photos and empowering headlines is meant to deliver a “one-two punch of fashion and emotion” and capture “what is means to be a lady in 2015.”
The media plan combines retail, social, print and digital (with publishers including Nylon, Paper, Interview, Refinery29 and WhoWhatWear) with wild postings, bus wraps and subway media “in many of NYC’s most artistic neighborhoods.”
“Rock out in comfort” is a headline that will horrify rock ‘n’ roll purists—but Ringo Starr doesn’t care. The Beatles drummer is relaxation personified in his first campaign for Skechers, as the brand continues its association with aging legends following the Pete Rose ad on the Super Bowl.
Check out the commercial and print work below.
“I love to be relaxed,” Ringo says in a statement. “I don’t know why people think because you’re a well-known pop star that we relax differently. We don’t—we hang out at home, we have dinner, go to the movies. I like to actually sit on a beach in the sun and listen to the waves. But you can’t do that every day, can you?”
Ringo released his 18th solo album, Postcards from Paradise, on March 31 and will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist this Saturday.
After a year away, Skechers will return to the Super Bowl on Sunday with a 15-second spot starring Pete Rose, who good-naturedly pokes fun at his continuing exclusion from baseball’s Hall of Fame—with help from fiancée Kiana Kim.
See the ad, which promotes the brand’s Relaxed Fit footwear, below.
“Pete isn’t just a baseball legend, he’s an American icon—and there’s no better place for an American icon than the Super Bowl,” Michael Greenberg, president of Skechers, said in a statement. “Besides, what better place is there for Pete to state his case for the Hall? Maybe the hundred million plus people watching will turn the tide.”
“I am thrilled that people around the world will get to see me walk a hall—even though it may not be THE Hall!” added Rose, 73. “I can’t say the Super Bowl was on my bucket list, but I’m certainly glad to be there.”
This is the footwear company’s fifth appearance in the game, after four straight from 2010 to 2013, and a break in 2014. Its 2010 spot starred Joe Montana, followed by Kim Kardashian in 2011 (who’s back this year with T-Mobile). The brand went with animals the following two years—a pug in 2012 and a cheetah in 2013.
Vans has released an ambitious new documentary project titled "Living Off the Wall" with a gorgeous scrolling website and so much great content that no one in their right mind has time to watch it all.
But of course, I watched it all for you. Check out the documentary on the East Los Angeles punk scene for some of the best-cut stuff. The documentarian Angela Boatwright has a special way of capturing wayward teen anger that capitalizes on every eye roll and seamlessly blends with the alternative perspective of the Vans brand.
While the Vans viewpoint is present with content about skateboards, tattoos, motorbikes and punk and gypsy lifestyles, the shoes are conspicuously silent. No one talks about his or her shoes. There are no shoe glory shots where you just stare at a pair of Vans. Just digestible mini-docs about the brand's consumers and their lifestyles, perfect for those with drug-altered attention spans. It's brilliant.
Vans fans who want to join in can become documentarians themselves. All of the content they submit is available at Vans Off the Wall TV network and app. The whole thing just reeks of authenticity.
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Running-shoe brand Pearl Izumi recently learned, as we all must, that "Run until you kill your dog" isn't a message the public is ready to accept. This print ad, which is part of a campaign that includes a video, has been the target of much consumer umbrage since it appeared in Canadian Running magazine, and rightfully so. Images like that alienate people, and worse, they might prompt Sarah McLachlan to lecture us about giving to the ASPCA. Pearl Izumi has apologized at length, saying the ad "overstepped the bounds of good taste. A lot." The company also made a $10,000 donation to the Boulder Valley Humane Society.
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You may have seen an uncharacteristically bawdy ad for Crocs on the Internet this week. Well, it turns out it was fake (it was apparently a spec spot from London production company Compulsory), and Crocs isn't happy about it. "It is not an authentic Crocs ad," the company says. "We're very concerned by it, because it does not reflect our company values as a global lifestyle brand. No one at Crocs is familiar with this ad; no one at Crocs authorized its creation or appearance. We are committed to portraying the Crocs brand in a positive and respectful manner." This is understandable. Any sexiness scale worth anything would rate Crocs somewhere between dead grandma and Linux conference. Any ad that suggests otherwise is clearly phony.
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Let's say it like Comic Book Guy: Best. Collaboration. Ever. Fox's dysfunctional yet loving animated family, The Simpsons, have joined with Converse for a line of screen-printed Chuck Taylor sneakers. Through Converse retailers and Journeys.com, you can get your paws on these colorful high-tops festooned with Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, Maggie, catch phrases, chalk scrawls and more. The Simpsons, in production now on its 25th season, is the longest-running scripted show in TV history and one of the biggest licensing hits of the past few decades. It's a multibillion-dollar franchise in swag alone, with plenty of footwear over the years. You didn't have puffy, oversized Bart-head slippers? What a sad childhood that must've been. The Chuck Taylor All Star collection comes in adult and kid sizes. All together now: Woo-hoo! More images below.
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La marque de sneakers Supra dévoile sa nouvelle collection printemps 2010, et ses nouveaux coloris pour le modèle Skytop : Brown Suede, Purple Patent Leather, Red/Black Tie Dye Suede et Acid Wash Denim. Une disponibilité prévue dans les prochains mois en magasins.
Une superbe publicité entièrement en slow-motion mettant en scène un flip du skateur Mike Carroll pour la marque de chaussures Lakai et son nouveau modèle : Limited Footwear. Une co-direction d’Alex Grazioli et Federico Vitetta de Filmmakers Entertainment.
In today’s environment, with technological advances, marketing strategies and celebrity endorsements, shoes have become much more than just footwear. Brands are scrambling to assert their top-dog status, and today finds Nike is in the midst of launching one of their broadest multimedia campaigns to date, including a :60 spot to air on American Idol and college basketball tournaments asserting that “my better is better than your better”:
The emerging Nike campaign is in direct response to the Under Armour Superbowl spot proclaiming “The Future is Ours,” announcing their entrance into the cross-trainer marketplace. Under Armour quickly rose to dominance in the “compression fitting apparel” category, and after entering the market less than a year ago, has taken a 1/5 market share of football cleats. An interesting article in today’s Oregonian has some interesting info and quotes regarding the Nike campaign and the shoe/athletic apparel battle:
“This was definitely an all-out attempt to stop Under Armour in its tracks,” said John Horan, publisher of trade newsletter Sporting Goods Intelligence. “They want to make sure they don’t get surprised on this category.”
Follow the jump for the Under Armour spot, a bit of Adidas, and some Pony action
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