Kudos to the execs at Dr. Martens, the once-hip boot company, for completely fucking up their recent British ad campaign. The company got into scalding water after running a series of print ads depicting dead rock stars (Kurt Cobain, Joe Strummer, Joey Ramone, Sid Vicious) floating up to heaven sporting steel-toed Docs. Since the UK doesn’t require companies to clear images with the estates of dead celebrities, Dr. Martens didn’t break the law. They did however break the trust of the very audience they were trying to reach.

The eye-catching campaign was created by British firm Saatchi and Saatchi, who’s work Dr. Martens said they did not commission. They also claimed that the campaign in question runs counter to their current marketing ideas, which are “dedicated to nurturing grass roots creativity and supporting emerging talent.” CEO David Suddens told People.com, “We are really, really, really sorry. We do think that it is offensive. We made a mistake.”

We agree Mr. Suddens, we agree. Despite protesting that Saatchi and Saatchi went rogue by distributing the ads without authorization, we think Docs used poor judgment by okaying the campaign to begin with. It wasn’t the distribution of said ads that got people peeved, it was their existence that reeked of bad taste. Even if all four passed-away punks had worn Docs (though we’re still not convinced Joey Ramone was a Doc man — he always seemed more like a Chuck Taylor kinda guy), and just because England has lax laws regarding celebrity endorsements, the approval of these ads seems remarkably short-sighted, and another example of a corporation being out of touch with their target demo. If John Wayne had smoked Marlboros, imagine the controversy if Philip Morris had run a campaign featuring shots of Wayne smoking one of their cigs.

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A smarter idea might have been licensing actual photos of the rockers wearing Dr. Martens, which shouldn’t have been too hard, if, as the company claims, each of them did actually sport the boots. The ads would have felt authentic, and wouldn’t have made the dead rock stars look like corporate shills, but rather, free-thinking icons photographed in their native attire. It’s also possible that the Hot Topic teens targeted in the ads would be too young to recognize the rockers anyway, since much of these bands’ best material was released over 15 years ago.

The company may have been aware of the potential controversy and decided to forgo the risks. The campaign is certainly well-executed, and when was the last time you thought about Doc Martens anyway? While we don’t disagree with the adage that there’s no such thing as bad publicity, we’d want to add to it: “unless you’re pissing off the people you’re desperately trying to reach.”

Dr. Martens has since fired the agency that created the ads, and the estates of both Kurt Cobain and Joey Ramone have issue statements decrying their disgust. Joey Ramone’s brother Mickey Leigh said, “As executor of my brother’s estate, I never would have approved this ad as Joey never wore these shoes. And, not that my brother was terribly religious, but the fact that he was Jewish, and this ad is not exactly kosher, makes it that much more inappropriate, inconsiderate and contemptible.”

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