I just made my very first complaint to the Advertising Standards Agency.  I feel like rolling my eyes at myself  and muttering “You’re some kinda crazy outraged moral guardian complaining about something that doesn’t even directly affect you.”  But then I say to myself “Well, somebody has to stand up for standards and decency.”  And then rolling my eyes at myself once again.  I appear to be entering middle age with a fair bit of internal conflict.

Anyway… the ad itself is appalling and plays on the worst, worst, worst aspect of little girls tormenting each other over “fashionable” clothing.  My outrage is over a jingle which has played in the background of many LelliKelly shoe campaigns – advertising a number of different products.  In the current case it’s for some shoes plus makeup kit bag.  I don’t particularly like that they’re pitching makeup at young girls, but c’est la vie.  What I can’t stand is the line:

You can’t play with us, we are too cool, oh yeah

Argghh.

As someone who was once tortured at school for not having enough pairs of designer jeans or the right pair of trainers (Harpeth Valley School) or OshKosh overalls and a down jacket (Webb School), it brings back some horrible memories.  But it also means that I know these things happen.  There will be lots of girls whose parents can’t afford £43 (c. $70) for a pair of fancy shoes that they generally wouldn’t even be allowed to wear to school – and they will be sneered at by those girls whose parents have bought the shoes.  And while I think I would find it a bit distasteful if that was in the subtext of the ad, I think it’s wholly inappropriate for it to be in the text of the ad.  It’s just saying “Hey girls, BULLY, BULLY, BULLY! Torment and tease each other over material items.  We know you want to – here’s the overt permission!”  And it puts parents in the position of abetting this nasty message or “allowing” their little girl to become a victim of being LelliKelly-less.

Offending lyrics start just after second 18

The funny thing is I think LelliKelly shoes are really cute.  I’m a big fan of the shiny.  See.  Here’s my most recent shoe purchase.

I think you’ll agree they really are too cool. You can’t play with me, oh yeah.