He’s not an athlete, he just plays one (badly) on TV

Nike didn’t drop Tiger Woods as a spokesman after all of his “problems,” which suggests that even bad boys can still sell products. But the recent decision from K-Swiss to use a fictional athlete to market shoes seems way, way off base. A newly launched ad campaign for the TUBES fitness shoes from K-Swiss features “slightly delusional ex-professional baseball player” Kenny Powers, played by actor Danny McBride, from the HBO series Eastbound & Down. Considering that Powers seldom thinks before opening his mouth, it is an odd choice for a spokesman.

But David Nichols, executive vice-president of K-Swiss sums it up another way, “we wanted to deliver unfiltered straight talk about how awesome TUBES are. Who better to do that than Kenny Powers?”

Well, why not a real athlete, such as a runner, or how about a better spokesperson in general? Have we gotten to the point where the ultimate (and fictional) bad boy – and in this a case a foul mouthed, slightly racist one at that – is the best role model a company can come up with to sell shoes? The campaign is being aimed at the younger male demographic, and includes billboards in Times Square and Venice Beach, while ads will run on ESPN and Comedy Central as well as in movie theaters nationwide. There is even a Facebook App called “Workout Wingman” with Powers taking over your Facebook page for gym training.

This might all seem clever, but we have to wonder if this is truly the decline and fall of western civilization. Good fun maybe, but in the end shouldn’t it be about the shoes rather than the message?

K-Swiss TUBES