Last year, Kim Kardashian was featured in a sexy ad for Skechers that was alluding more to her infamous sex tape than football games or shoes. Skechers is featuring a dog in its Super Bowl spot this year instead of the reality star. The Kardashian ad showed Kim writhing around with a man while posing and teasing and then finally showing her sneakers. This year’s advertisement will feature a dog wearing shoes racing a group of greyhounds.
An executive with Skechers, Leonard Armato, said that the switch is less to do with Kim’s bad publicity recently and more with the company’s decision to promote a high-tech shoe.
“Kim got us more attention than we ever dreamed,” he said. “We have to establish Skechers as more than a lifestyle company.”
The real reason could be the fact that Kim’s line of shoes, ShoeDazzle, has grown much larger over the past year and there could be a competition issue that could not be resolved.
The company has issued a statement regarding Kardashian being removed from their television ads for this year’s Super Bowl:
“Kim Kardashian has had a tremendously positive effect on the Skechers brand. Not only did Kim’s Skechers Super Bowl ad generate over 1.6 Billion positive media impressions for Skechers, but she played a big part in Skechers moving up last year from 388 to 99 among companies with the highest brand trust.
While Kim’s contract with Skechers simply came to an end at the end of last year, we continue to have a great relationship with her as we do with all the other talent who have worked with the brand over the years. To say that she was “dropped” or “replaced” is misleading and untrue. Skechers has enjoyed and continues to enjoy the relationship with Kim, and in fact we continue to discuss ways that we may work together in the future.”
