Gentle readers, check out this commercial for Skechers’ new “Shape Ups for Girls” shoes.* The shoe is for a spin-off of the adult Shape Up shoe, but now this bogus fitness product is being advertised to girls ages 7-12. Not boys, mind you. Just girls—girls who are “looking good and having fun” while running away from a hot dog, a cupcake, and an ice cream cone.
Yes, just as Big Food markets non-food diet foods to women, here’s Big Fashion marketing a get-fit fitness shoe which scientific studies have shown won’t make you fit and may cause injury. But now they’re marketing to grade-schoolers, because we women are never too young for advertising that makes us feel insecure and want to improve our imperfect bodies with yet another useless product.
Angry posts about the ad and the shoe began appearing everywhere: Change.org, Strollerderby, Babble and the Washington Post‘s OnParenting blog. In a response at Huffington Post, Skechers chair Leonard Armato offers a thoroughly unconvincing defense of the product:
While Skechers agrees these issues are important, we think it is unfair and inaccurate to conflate them with Shape-ups for Girls and its advertising aimed at girls ages 7 through 12. We’d like to set the record straight.
The whole message behind Shape-ups is to get people moving, exercising, and getting fit. Skechers’ advertising for Shape-ups for Girls contains the same message as the First Lady’s Let’s Move initiative, which is aimed specifically at children.
Let’s be clear: at no time has Michelle Obama or her Let’s Move initiative endorsed this shoe. But Skechers is going to try to hitch to that wagon anyway. If I were the First Lady, I’d be pissed.
American children are more sedentary now than at any time in our history. Shape-ups’ intended purpose is to promote exercise and fitness, which should be viewed as a positive message for kids to get up and get moving.
American children are overweight and sedentary—both boys and girls. And yet…there is no Skechers Shape-up for boys. Concern-trolling about kids’ health is apparently limited just to girls’ health.
Skechers also has received some inquiries from journalists who erroneously thought that Shape-ups for Girls was being marketed to pre-school children. This is not the case. Shape-ups for Girls come in sizes 2-6, which is meant for girls approximately 7 to 12 years old, and some even older, depending upon their size.
Depending on their size indeed. Saying the product is for girls 7-12 but not younger girls undermines his argument that these shoes are about is about exercise and health. If it truly were, they would make the shoes for children that age because kindergartners and pre-schoolers benefit from exercise as well, which is why you can buy soccer cleats and hockey skates for girls that young, for example.
What’s really going on here is that Skechers did their market research. They know that girls start dieting as young as eight, and are under tremendous pressure to look thin and cute from almost as soon as they’re aware of their bodies. Skechers is probably paying close attention to studies like the one Babble cites in which an international survey reported that 77% of young girls between ages 10 and 14 think that they are ugly. 80% of 13 year old girls have tried to lose weight, and 50% of girls between the ages of 10 and 13 think that they are overweight. When faced with all the data on how unhappy and messed-up girls feel about their bodies, someone at Skechers said: Just think of the marketing possibilities!
*You may notice that the comments are turned off on the YouTube page for the ad. Given the number of “dislikes,” I think we know why.
That is one of the most depressing things I’ve seen in a long, long time.
@Endora – agreed, + infinity!
This makes me want to cry.
Consumer Reports totally took those shoes down a while back.
I agree with the above comments.
I don’t want to derail, but I really want to know: for those commenters with kids, how do you handle things like this?
What if you had a tween daughter who begged you for a pair of these shoes? How do you go about not just explaining why you’re not comfortable with the shoes and their messages, but helping your kids develop solid self-esteem in such a toxic society?
I don’t have kids, but I’m concerned that if I ever do, I won’t be able to be heard above the cacophony like this ad. =\
If any parents out there want to answer Skada’s question, I’d also really like to hear what you think or what you do in this situation!
Saying no is easy enough. From what I remember about being one of those insecure tweens, my parents were great at saying no, and explaining why. It’s just that I STILL didn’t believe them, and continued to think I was ugly. For me, the only thing that worked was FINALLY having my very own money to waste- and wasting it on useless products that did not work, like $15 (I saved for MONTHS) for what turned out to be a freaking PAMPHLET out of the back of Seventeen Magazine. The pamphlet said, “Act like you are skinny already and you will lose weight!” and other unhelpful maxims.
The anger helped me more than anything.
Ugh, what a depressing ad campaign!
As a parent, I just say no. Then again, I have two boys who don’t care what they wear. They don’t wear anything that seems to be a fad.
Pressure is a lot heavier on girls. I remember feeling like I was going to be the laughingstock of school if I didn’t have a certain type of clothing. In my family’s case, we just didn’t have the money for fads, so I never would have gotten something like these shoes.
I tried to educate our kids from early on about being aware consumers. I let them know when I thought an ad campaign was being inappropriate for some reason and I told them there were certain products I wouldn’t buy and certain places I wouldn’t shop because of their policies and ads.
It’s so much more pervasive now than it was 15 or 20 years ago. The idea that the way businesses behave can drive a wedge between parents and children makes me furious.
@Skada – Start with the fact that the shoes are actually bad for you. Back that up with the evidence from Consumer Reports and others who have researched and shown that Shape Up shoes can actually cause injury. Tell her you love her too much to get her something that might cause her permanent damage like that. Then, if she’s old enough to understand, you can try to talk about body image issues in the media and advertising.
As a mom, the answer is no and always will be no. In addition to addressing the messages a particular thing sends, I’ve also made sure that K has quite a secure sense of self. While other 5 year olds are wishing for other hair colours and body shapes (yes, it starts this early), she knows she is awesome. I hope that it continues.
For anyone who is interested these shoes were inspired by balance boards which are a) really fun and b) actually do work to increase muscle tone in the lower body. When I worked with special needs kids we used them for physical therapy all the time and the kids had a total blast.
Ugh. I don’t know what’s worse–the fact that this is a product that exists or the fact that it’s being marketed to *seven-year-olds* by cartoon stick-girls who all look about 16.
Vomit. That’s all I have to say.
And now I have that HORRIBLE fucked up song STUCK IN MY HEAD!
@Brennen: Most kids imitate older kids and adults that they think are cool, so it’s a sickeningly effective marketing strategy.
Tell the kid. I’d say tell the child directly that these shoes are exploitation.
If the child doesn’t understand the bigger issue or can’t get an intro to the bigger issue, then I fall back on the economic explanation. Regular shoes x cost this, but your choice product y costs this plus that.
But sometimes you will lose those arguments.
Lately I’ve been trying to convince my 18yo daughter that “Lolita” dresses are not compatible with feminism and I am not going to win that argument.
[...] Skechers is sexist and hates cupcakes – Uh, wow. This advertisement is all kinds of creepy. Don’t run from cupcakes, girls!. But maybe run away from a Candy BBQ. [...]
I like the “get in shape while having fun” premise… But I dislike almost everything else.
I agree these things should be marketed to both girls and boys – only then could you say it’s about being healthy.
Also, I have nieces in that age range, and I’d be concerned about them getting injured due to “cute” shoes. What, are Shape-Ups the new kiddie heel?