Crocs spoofed the classic 2006 YouTube video ‘Shoes’ with its original creator

In the early days of YouTube, long before the TikTok-ification of the internet trend cycle, viral videos such as “Charlie Bit My Finger” and “Charlie the Unicorn” (no relation) remained in the internet zeitgeist for months, or even years, at a time. Crocs reached back to one of these classic YouTube videos—“Shoes,” a 2006 music video that has amassed nearly 80 million views between its original and extended versions—for one of its latest social media ads. And Crocs recruited the video’s original creator, comedian Liam Kyle Sullivan, to reprise his starring role as “Kelly” in its spoof of the 18-year-old video. Crocs’ ad recreates a scene toward the end of the original video where Kelly and two friends confront a rude salesperson who snidely tells Kelly that her feet are “kinda big” and likely won’t fit in the silver kitten heel shoes she wants to purchase. In Sullivan’s video, Kelly screams “F*ck you!” at the salesperson several times before tackling her to the ground. Crocs, however, puts a far more peaceful twist on the original scene, having the salesperson (played by vocal coach and songwriter Rachael Lawrence Douglass, also reprising her role from the 2006 video) instead offer to find a pair of the hot pink Crocs Kelly wants to buy in her size. In response, Kelly trades her original “F*ck you!” for a shout of “Thank you!” “Remember this moment when this betch saleslady didn’t have my size?!?” Sullivan wrote in the caption of his Instagram collab post with Crocs. “Well, it’s almost 18 years later and she actually helped me.” The captions of both Crocs’ Instagram and TikTok videos also contain a limited-time promo code, OMGShoes (a reference to the repetitive chorus of the song Sullivan sings in the video), which offers a 22% discount on orders through the Crocs website. In 24 hours, Crocs’ video garnered over 1.7 million views across TikTok and Instagram. Over 6,000 users collectively left comments on the two videos, with many celebrating the return of Kelly after 18 years and calling the partnership “iconic” or “genius.” “The new generation will never understand how iconic this is,” the top comment on Crocs’ TikTok video reads. Bubble Skincare also commented on the partnership, dubbing it the “COLLAB OF THE CENTURY.” More Creativity coverage from Ad Age: Sign up for our daily Creativity newsletter to see the best stories of the day.

Crocs spoofed the classic 2006 YouTube video ‘Shoes’ with its original creator

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