In print ads and in a catalog, Naturalizer portrays women in provocative positions shod in the company's updated footwear line. In one, a man who appears to be standing naked in a hot tub lays his head in the bosom and lap of a woman lying alongside-who is wearing loafers. Women in the ads appear to be in their mid to late 30s or early 40s; the men look younger. The black-and-white ads will run in March issues of several magazines.
"We want a new customer," said Sam Shahid, president-creative director Shahid & Co., New York, who worked on the campaign and is best known for his provocative ads and catalogs for Abercrombie & Fitch.
Naturalizer has already made some progress. In the late 1990s the brand's average customer was age 62; last year the average age for a Naturalizer shoe was the mid-40s.
Naturalizer spent $1 million on advertising for the first 11 months of last year.
