A dashing young Sikh gazes jauntily through Kenneth Cole sunglasses. The full page ad reads, kenneth cole rado “Sonny Caberwal, practicing Sikh and entrepreneur, speaking out against racial profiling.”
Kenneth Cole, successful fashion designer and businessman, has aired his concerns about social issues on magazine pages and billboards for years. In 2008, he launched an “AWEARNESS” blog and a fashion ad campaign themed “We all walk in different shoes” to mark the company’s 25th year of “non-uniform thinking.”kenneth cole rado Caberwal modeled for the first in a series of ads highlighting diversity of ethnicity, life choices, politics and even physical handicaps.
“We wanted something provocative … nonstereotypical models,” Steve Wyatt, the Kenneth Cole marketing vice president and assistant creative director told America.gov. The response to the Caberwal ad, and the international buzz it created, surprised everyone. “It went out on the Sikh blogosphere. …kenneth cole rado We were amazed at the response,” Wyatt says. An article about the ad appeared in the Times of India.