Skechers has released a new line of wedge sneakers for teen girls. It is called Daddy'$ Money. It has a money sign ($) instead of an "S." The tagline is "Get spoiled with Daddy's money, ultra cool shoes that will put you in the spotlight..." And yes, all of the above is true.
When a commercial for Daddy'$ Money aired on The Hub -- a channel geared toward kids -- Julianna W. Miner, a mom of three who blogs at RantsFromMommyland.com, was outraged. "It's so bad that if it were a Saturday Night Live sketch -- it would be hilarious. But it's not. It's real. And I had to watch it all the way through twice before it started to sink in that people were seriously trying to sell this garbage to my daughter," she wrote.
Here's the spot:
Miner first takes issue with the campaign's underlying message that girls and women don't have to work for what they want. "Instead, put on tiny shorts and a belly shirt and go ask 'Daddy' for some money," she wrote.
Joslyn Gray at Babble is equally perplexed and wonders whether "Daddy" is even referencing a girl's father, or if "Daddy" is short for Sugar Daddy. If her daughters tried to "sway" their father with the clothes used in the commercial, she writes, "I'm pretty sure he'd deliver a long lecture on the value of money, and then send them upstairs to put on pants."
Both Miner and Gray are appalled by the names of the each of the shoe styles as well -- "Gimme Kisses" (lips), "Gimme Wicked" (leopard-print), "Gimme Starry Skies" (stars) and just plain "Gimme" (flowers, of course). "To dress in tight clothes and go to their daddy with their hands out and say 'gimme,'" is not a lesson Miner wants to teach her kids.
Erica Souter, editor of Cafe Mom's "The Stir," agreed with Miner and Gray's reactions calling the campaign "totally sexist" today on Good Morning America.
Putting the name and its' connotations aside, the commercial's emphasis on the shoes' hidden heel might also be sending a negative message to girls. "Are we teaching them that they need to be taller? So that what? They appear to be thinner? Because whatever their size or height or body type, it's wrong," Miner writes.
In response to the unanimous outrage, Skechers told ABC News that, "the daddy's money name and the collection's advertising are designed to be lighthearted, and we regret that some people have been offended by the name."
At least the shoes aren't telling girls not to do their homework?