What were they thinking? This week's revelation of Dr. Martens' print ad campaign featuring digitally adjusted photos of deceased punk rock icons dressed as angels in heaven wearing Doc Martens shows how some companies and ad agencies can push the envelope a bit too far when it comes to clever, attention-catching advertising.
The Dr. Martens website posted an apology stating the ad campaign was the creative brainchild of Saatchi and Saatchi London and was never meant to be released publicly. As punishment and to save their own brand from more bad press, Dr. Martens fired Saatchi and Saatchi London. Who's ultimately responsible? Let the fingerpointing begin.
In response to seeing the ad featuring her late husband, Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain, Courtney Love publicly criticized Dr. Martens and the word "lawsuit" has already been thrown around in the media. Dr. Martens responded by saying they were, "really, really, really sorry." That's three "sorrys," so they must mean it.
Kurt Cobain's image has been spoken about most so far, but Yahoo! Music reports Joey Ramone of the Ramones, Joe Strummer of The Clash and Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols were each featured in an ad photo. Boing Boing published several interesting posts about this scandal including a comment from media critic Douglas Rushkoff questioning who released the images that were supposedly never meant to be released and to what end. These are very good questions. I would also ask who is responsible for maintaining good taste and sensitivity in advertising and marketing? I think the responsibility should be shared among everyone involved.
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