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(UPI) -- Skechers' new line of wedge-sneakers for teen girls has come under fire for a marketing strategy that some parents are calling superficial and sexist. The brightly colored shoes come with a hidden wedge for height and run for about $50 to $80 dollars at DSW and online retailers like Zappos. So far, so good.
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But the New York-based company named the line "Daddy'$ Money," with a dollar sign replacing the "S" in "Daddy's" and a Facebook pitch that reads, "Get spoiled with Daddy’s Money, ultra-cool shoes that will put you in the spotlight with a dose of swag and a 2’’ hidden wedge." The shoes' designs have names like "Gimme Megabucks" and "Gimme Mucho Dinero."
When a commercial for Daddy'$ Money shoes aired on kids channel The Hub, RantsFromMommyland.com blogger and mom Julianna W. Miner said her "head exploded."
Jeanne Sager wrote on The Stir that Skechers' advertising strategy mirrors many unhealthy portrayals of father-daughter relationships on television."It's so bad that if it were a Saturday Night Live sketch - it would be hilarious. But it's not. It's real," Miner wrote. "This is NOT how we teach girls and young women to get what they want."
Some have voice their disapproval on the product's Facebook page."It supports this notion that a girl's job is to manipulate her father, a father's job to do his daughter's bidding," Sager wrote.
"This type of advertising is EXACTLY what is wrong with the world," one commenter wrote. "They types of values you are instilling in young, impressionable minds and the messages you are sending are absolutely disgusting."
"The Daddy's Money name and the collection's advertising are designed to be fun and lighthearted," the company told ABC News. "We regret that some people have been offended by the name."
