I can’t claim to be much of a fashionista, but I have to admit that clothing and shoe designer Kenneth Cole’s latest ad campaign does a great job of being both slick and spiritual. The tagline for the campaign is “We all walk in different shoes” and instead of using more glam, high profile celebs, Kenneth Cole oped for a more eclectic mix of personalities, including urban church pastor Jay Bakker and Hasidic reggae artist Matisyahu. The series of ads not only uses the distinct images of each person, but also focuses on the unique stories of people from all walks of life as way of celebrating diversity.
I don’t know if such a soulful, intelligent campaign is going to outshine the snazzier Gap ads or the cheesy commercials for Old Navy, but I sure respect the effort to remind us to think about someone else’s journey–whatever shoes they’re wearing.