K-Swiss has a new ad campaign built around the idea of Kenny Powers as the company’s CEO, and I have to admire the balls it took to make a profane fictional character on pay cable the centerpiece of an ad campaign. As “MFCEO,” Powers (Danny McBride) has hired Chiefs quarterback Matt Cassel to run the marketing department, UFC fighter Jon “Bones” Jones as head of HR, and “Biggest Loser” coach Jillian Michaels to taunt and yell at people — something that I always enjoy. I also approve of the gratuitous use of attack helicopters, explosions, and women in bikinis.
Other athletes in the new commercials are 49ers linebacker Patrick Willis, WWE’s Rey Misterio, UFC’s Urijah Faber, and Olympic hopeful Josh Cox (“Josh, stop not breaking world records”). I found a lot of these videos entertaining, and the campaign is a brazen departure from K-Swiss’s old brand identity, “boring white shoes for people who play tennis.” Videos on the following pages via Ad Week.
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