K-Swiss and their huge balls.

Until recently, I had forgotten about K-Swiss. They were the shoe my sister wore for about a year in middle school, circa 1992.

I just remember them being fucking ugly white shoes.

Little did I know the balls this company has. 

The new K-Swiss campaign is built around spokesman, Kenny Powers. Kenny is a fictional character in the HBO series, East Bound and Down. He is an out of shape former major league pitcher who is also foul-mouthed, sexist, and  way too confident. (Season 1 is hilarious. Season 2 begins in September.)

The video to launch the campaign for the new K-Swiss Tubes is just as dirty and hilarious.

Kenny Powers Gets Signed By K-Swiss - watch more funny videos

This campaign is brilliant. Kenny's face is on banner ads, and commercials, and his over-confident, 'yeah, I'm awesome' attitude is throughout.

This next video has the Kenny character with real athletes like Jeremy Shockey, so you get the entertainment from Kenny, but the proof from Shockey. The best part is the last line at the end of the commercial by Kenny; "Tubes---If  you don't like them, then change your mind."

I applaud the agency, 72andSunny, for pitching this idea and for K-Swiss getting on board with it. It's very inspiring and reminds me of the possibilities of advertising. What happens if you're given the account of a dead shoe company (or so it seemed to me)?  How do you change perception?

I would like to know how the creative team got to "Okay, so the 'Tubes' are the main benefit to these shoes," to "Let's get the Kenny Powers character to be the spokesman."

And the Powers character works so well for this brand. Can you imagine if K-Swiss came at you with a serious, inspiring, Nike-esque campaign? Most people would tune them out or call bullshit. But the Powers character gets you on the side of K-Swiss. You can workout like Jeremy Shockey and not be all up your ass about it.

I really like this campaign. I might actually buy a pair of Tubes because of it.