Dickies Clothing Loses Customers Due to Bad Advertising Campaign

The offending Dickies ad is on p. 89 of the September 2005 issue of Transworld.

You know, when I was taking all those classes in college about marketing they would talk about doing focus groups, research, and really trying to figure out what the customer wanted. Sometimes companies would do the right things and have a hit product. Sometimes they wouldn’t do the right things and they’d still get lucky. Sometimes they’d do the right things and it would bomb. And sometimes they wouldn’t do the right things and it would bomb. That’s my way of saying that I don’t know whether or not Dickies did the right things, but I have to guess they didn’t, because there are some obvious problems with this ad.

1. Is this guy really a skater? They’ve got some black dude on a skateboard in this ad. It would probably take the average 13-year old about .002 seconds to see that this guy obviously knows nothing about skateboarding. From the front foot floating off the board to the patriotic flair on his wrist, this guy is a model through and through. Just posing. Other problems with his getup include:

a. Shoes too new. They’re barely even dusty.

b. The board is too new. The wheels don’t even have a touch of dirt on them. This makes it obvious that this board has only been used in a photo studio, probably on a clean white sheet.

c. Has anyone ever seen a skater dress like that? Sure, maybe the pants, maybe someone wore a shirt like that in 1993 but buttoned up, but it’s just not fooling anyone.

2. Are we really supposed to think that this guy is skating? They draw a line, tilt the photo, and expect us to think this is for real?

3. “wear it how you work it” - What’s that supposed to mean? Wear it how you do when you’re at work? Wear it how you wear it when you’re skating, or in other words “workin’ it”? Wear it casual because you’re a casual cat when you’re skating? I’m just not following.

4. Small font. You see, a few years back having illegible, really small text on websites and then other graphic design projects was really cool. Now it’s played out. But they’re still trying to put it in here. Plus there’s a problem…you can read the text, and it ain’t nothing good. “break rules//: tame the boards” it says. Yeah, because skaters are all about breaking rules, right? Yeah, anarchy in the UK. Give it up. Anarchy and breakin’ rules just for the sake of it has got to be about the most childish thing you can do.

But it’s the tame the boards part that really gets me. What are they talking about? I don’t know, but it’s wacky. There’s also a number 05 there for some reason. Maybe it’s “tame the boards in ‘05″ or something. Yeah, rock on man. “Tame the boards dude! Wear it how you work it! Yeah!”

5. Wal-Mart. Does anything else say “large corporation” better than Wal-Mart? They’re only one of the largest companies in the world, and I don’t just mean big, I literally mean they are one of the largest companies in the world, like #1 or #2 or something. Congrats Dickies, whereas you used to be viewed as somewhat anti-establishment and anti-corporate, you’ve now solidified yourselves as a pawn of the largest retailer in the world. Prepare to lose customers amongst the skateboarding demographic.

Ultimately, that’s what gets me most about this ad. If Dickies had not run the ad, they’d still be getting sales out of skateboarders. Dickies has been pretty popular over the years. But because of this ad, I’m pretty sure they’ll have less customers because it’s such a turn-off. How’s that for smart marketing?