Earlier today, a blogger I follow on Twitter posted a picture of back-to-school Crocs she purchased for her son. Crocs sells shoes for fall? Who knew? I was excited to see that she also posted a link to a back-to-school promotional video the company put on YouTube. Wow. More than 900,000 views. I took a look, as these are precisely the kinds of initiatives we’re working on with our clients. It’s an animated, oftentimes trippy portrayal of how back-to-school Crocs cure the end of summer blues. Imagine my surprise when the words, “They ain’t got no holes, but I swear they’re still Crocs.” Never mind that the video later calls school miserable. Now I know a video that insists on sanitized messaging won’t go viral and certainly won’t resonate with youth. But while this video has a lot of views, it doesn’t seem to win over kids. Take a look at the comments to see what I mean.
Just after I saw the Crocs video, I noticed the debacle over JC Penney’s “I’m too pretty to do homework so my brother has to do it for me” shirt. Of course, this item caused a major stir on social media channels and the company pulled the product and issued an apology. I never saw the product on JC Penney’s site, but the description that came up on Google said something like, “Who has time for homework when you have to check out the latest Justin Bieber album…”
Maybe I’m being naive or simply too stodgy. But I hope a brand’s ability to connect with today’s youth and respect for intellect are not mutually exclusive.