Advertising
Kenneth Cole Productions, Inc. is well known for its socially conscious and often controversial advertising. Campaigns often incorporate topical issues, such as addressing Imelda Marcos'a shoe fetish in 1986 with the line, “Imelda Marcos bought 2,700 pairs of shoes. She could've at least had the courtesy to buy a pair of ours.” In 1994, the company ran its first partisan political ad for the New York state gubernatorial race featuring George Pataki and Mario Cuomo, Cole's father-in-law. The ad was an image of a muddy boot with the words: “Next time you hear George Pataki speak, might we suggest the appropriate footwear.” George Pataki did end up becoming governor and Cole received some backlash for his decision to run the ad.
Not all of their ads are as overtly political, but most have a humorous tint to them, often incorporating word plays or puns. Some of his better-known lines include: “What you stand for is more important than what you stand in,” “Are you putting us on?” and “Today is not a dress rehearsal.” Popular topics in his advertising include HIV/AIDS, homelessness, gun control, abortion, the environment and same-sex marriage.
The current advertising campaign uses the tagline “We need more than a surface mentality. The writing is on the wall.”
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Famous quotes containing the word advertising:
“Remove advertising, disable a person or firm from preconising [proclaiming] its wares and their merits, and the whole of society and of the economy is transformed. The enemies of advertising are the enemies of freedom.”
—J. Enoch Powell (b. 1912)
“Life is beset by many annoyances, and those that stand out above all are the life- insurance and advertising agents.”
—Alice Foote MacDougall (1867–1945)
“The same people who tell us that smoking doesn’t cause cancer are now telling us that advertising cigarettes doesn’t cause smoking.”
—Ellen Goodman (b. 1941)