CROCS 'Slip off. Slip in.'

Right, advertising Crocs: talk about being on the back-foot already! [pun done, boom!]

They don't have a particularly good reputation among the teen and young adult consumers, just look:

CROCS: Even the cat knows you shouldn't be seen in public wearing them.

CROCS: When you've completely given up on looking normal.

Birth Control Effectiveness

... and these were among the first images I found when I Googled 'crocs funny'. Not a great position to be in when you're marketing your product to this audience.

So, how do you combat it? How do you reach that core teenage audience and give them a reason to look at your product in a new way? What avenues can you explore and exploit? What do all teenagers have in common and on their minds constantly? SEX. Lots of SEX. You shove sex in it, on it, and all around it. Dress it up in nipple tassels, body glitter, and budgie smugglers and you ram it to the heel down their throats. Here's the ad:

It's fairly amusing, it managed to wheedle out a smirk from you during the first half, so I'll give it that; the rest of it though unfortunately reeks of desperation. They have effectively crow-barred in a concept that must have looked pretty threadbare on paper. Seb (he was probably called Seb) said at the creative stage "What do Crocs have going for them that doesn't have to do with comfort?", the room likely fell silent for a while. Daz (almost certainly a Daz) said "You... erm... you can, like, take them off quickly... when... WHEN YOU'RE BANGIN' BIRDS!" He almost certainly toured the room with high-fives after that; Seb was probably chanting "Ooos oos oos!" How the rest of the room thought this idea was credible enough to be produced is beyond me, save for a genuine lack of any better ideas.

Worst of all is that last situation in the shoeshop with the assistant- who are Crocs trying to kid in having us believe that an attractive young lady is going to eye-bang a punter buying Crocs? No consumer is going to re-evaluate a Croc just because some chap is pretending to get his rocks off in a shoe-store with a lady a few divisions above his punching weight. Certainly the title of the ad doesn't help with the salacious tone of the ad: 'Slip Off. Slip In.' it's genuinely rather gross. I need a shower and an adult.

Unfortunately this is a prime example of a brand struggling to come to terms with its market status. The ad looks like the last death throes of a dying antelope (ugly antelope) being dragged into the murky depths by a crocodile [you see the pun there? more subtle this time]. This is a shoe that just doesn't appeal to the cool demographic they're looking to capitalise on- just like literally anything sensible that parents would actually have their kids actually wear.

Again, that title- just appalling... You can imagine it being whispered in your ear by someone standing far too close and pronouncing the S's just too much. Sssssslip off. Ssssssslip in.