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There was a time when there was nothing more punk rock in LA than to have imported Dr. Martens boots. Sounds like a paradox, but thus is part of the fun in trying to explain or define punk.
In LA the only place where you could get Docs were at Na Na's in Santa Monica, but when the company decided to cut ties with the shoe store after 11 years in order to sell to more "conservative stores", many here in LA considered that to be the day Doc Martin's officially jumped the shark.
Now it looks like the former symbol of punk has decided to jump an entire school of whales.
According to PunkNews.org, the once-legendary shoe manufacturer has decided to come out with a series of ads to be seen in the UK featuring four different punk idols: Kurt Cobain, Joe Strummer, Joey Ramone, and Sid Vicious.
All we at LAist can say is this: the people responsible for this, those who created it, those who signed off on it, and the people who paid for it, have no concept of what punk means, about what Doc Martens boots represent, or what blasphemy means. They should all lose their jobs, be imprisoned, and die lonely painful lives.
More evidence of the ugliness after the jump.
Courtney Love better not be behind this.
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Ugh. They must all be spinning in their graves.
Doc Marten's jumped the shark when they stopped making them in the UK
Imagine those ghosts coming back seeking vengeance!
que horrible!
thats fuckin fucked!
Obscene. There should be a law against this.
And why does it matter what "LAist" thinks about a shoe campaign?
ask Yahoo why it mattered what "LAist" thought about what it was doing with its flickr policies.
and put your name next to your bullshit next time if you dare question this site again.
Why does it matter what "WHAT?" thought about what Laist thought about a shoe campaign? In fact, why does it matter what I think about what "WHAT?" thinks about what Laist thinks about a shoe campaign? What do you think about that? Hmmm?
I always associated doc martens way more with dead lesbians than dead punk rockers.
Well that seals it for me, I'm never ever ever buying their product again.
wrong, wrong, wrong. i'm throwing my docs away right now.
OH...MY...GOD...
"They should all lose their jobs, be imprisoned, and die lonely painful lives."
Amen to that. What a fucking travesty.
How depressing. Where else will they run the ads? Esquire? GQ? I'm sure Cobain would be thrilled.
Docs...Oh how I coveted thee. The first time I saw a pair of Docs was in Sassy magazine- I got my first pair for my 16th birthday (1992)-shipped to Michigan from my sister in LA. Remember how you had to be careful about the color of your laces, in case you met up with the wrong kids at shows?
And to think that the "new" Orville Reddenbacher blooper commercials freaked me out--this is just plain wrong.
its kind of ironic, that they are are depicting these less than angelic (although very talented and legendary) artists as angels...
gross i hate courtney love making money off of kurt
Kinda funny, really. The anti-commercialist punk movement latched onto a brand like a rottweiler latches on to a poodle, makes a particular corporation a punk icon, and moans about its betrayal of their trust!
Face it...when you were kids, if someone wore something that looked like army boots and it wasn't Docs, they weren't nearly as cool. You had to have Docs to be punk cool.
But if you truly understood punk, you understood the concept, rejected Docs because they were a mandatory uniform, went to the local army surplus store, and bought whatever funky Munson last army boots they had. They were cheaper, and they lasted at least twice as long. Actually, they last forever if you have them resoled.
Docs are, and in the US always were, for posers and punk fashionistas. They were an English punk thing, and their popularity in the US proves how US punks flat didn't get it.
At least the lesbians split their loyalty with Birkenstocks.
Remember the line in "Life of Brian", where Brian tells everyone they're "individuals". And the crowd yells back in unison "Yes! We're all individuals!"?
Courtney isn't behind it...her rep says they are considering legal action against Docs...Still, when I saw this I immediately thought she was behind it. Kinda shows how low people think she is.
While we'er riffing on deadsouls, methinks this ad is not only tasteless but stretching the association. yes, it may be true that the deadpopstars wore DM's a few time, i would associate DMs with clash city rocker joe the most, i don't think Joey even wore docs, he wore chuck taylors (so did kurt!) ... same with sid who may have worn chuck taylor's or a British version of high-top's aka "baseball boots" (or motorcycle boots or creepers but (Docs!) ... don't think so!
i agree with you dyee
i dont remember kurt in anything other than sneakers or high heels
Jerks. Joey Ramone wore converse all stars !
Make sure you check out the article on yahoo in which the Chief Exec for Docs claims they never approved the ad. ("British boot maker apologizes for dead rock icon ads")BTW, they fired the ad agency.
Christ, get over yourselves. They're dead. A shitty ad campaign featuring will only affect their image in the heads of people who know nothing about them.
I exclude Cobain from this, because the man was an overrated talent vacuum anyway.
well firstly i have to agree with the guy who said kurt usually wore converse all stars. doc martens are like the british punk scene, and then they are associated mainly with skinheads... when i first heard about this ad i thought courtney had to be behind it because you know, she'll do anything for money. then she said she was gonna sue over it, so yeah, great courtney maybe you're not such a loser, but you'll still take some money, huh? then she goes and sells his image for crap like key chains and lunch boxes, i mean how low can she go? someone should step in and take all rights to anything to do with kurt or nirvana from that drugged out skank and put them solely in the custody of frances bean when she turns 18 otherwise, when she turns 18 there won't be anything left for her!
Alright, I completely understand that some people are pretty upset about this campaign. The company is using dead idols (who couldn't have agreed or disagreed to be a part of this campaign)to help sell a product, but do we have to hate Doc Martens? So, they chose a lousy campaign. Everyone makes mistakes, including multi million dollar corporations. I still enjoy sporting my Docs, even if that means that some people just think I'm some weirdo poser kid trying to be cool. Why does it matter that they have a bad campaign once in a while? Cut em' some slack. After more than 60 years in the making, of course they're a little stuck right now. Wouldn't you be too if you had to make a new campiag every 6 months for 60 years? Yes. You would.
Oh dear, and you all fell into the nice little trap prepared for you by the nasty ad men.
can't imagine that the church going punk fraternity in the sky (if it existed) would really care that much about it--probably more amused by the handwringing and wailing that has ensued.