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Currently making the morning-show rounds, Nine West’s new shoe and handbag campaign left the Internet — and shoppers — in a debate over its level of offensiveness.
One promo depicts a pair of flip-flops sticking out of the brand’s Trenleigh Animal Print Satchel alongside the tagline, “Anticipatory Walk of Shame.” A second sets the leopard-print Chillice Pointed Toe Pumps against an archery target and the phrase “Starter Husband Hunting.” Another, headlined, “First Day of Kindergarten,” reads, “The bus arrives and so do the waterworks. Then it hits you: Mommy now has the weeks off. Wipe those happy-sad tears… We got a shoe for that.” It’s the Tiptoe Black Peep Toe Booties! (Also available in red, brown, or gray.)
Jezebel compiled a selection of the not-too-positive reactions posted on social media, like, “There are so many things wrong with this campaign… Why does ‘Mommy now have the weeks off’? Why can't ‘Mommy’ have a job in this scenario?” And, “What about the women not looking for Mr. Right, but instead Mrs. Right?”
Nine West hasn’t commented apart from a New York Times piece ahead of the advertisements’ launch, in which Erika Szychowski, the brand’s senior vice president of marketing, told the paper, “We have to change the way we talk about occasions because women are modern now and shop for a different reason.” She also noted that the ads' “brassier” tone reflects that of Girls or Inside Amy Schumer. Szychowski added, “[A]s we’ve started to have competitors which didn’t exist when we were founded, we lost some of that little sparkle that occurred in someone’s eyes when they talked about the brand.” It’s because females nowadays can only register Shoshanna-level vocal intonation, of course.
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