Update, Tuesday 4:16 p.m.
Kim Kardashian isn't going to the dogs — but the dogs are going to where the reality star once tread.
The reality TV starlet — who raised eyebrows and more than a few pulses with her Super Bowl ad for Skechers' Shape-Up shoe in 2011 — won't be repeating her duties for the footwear company this year. Instead, Skechers is going with a spot featuring a French bulldog.
Woof.
Kardshian earned negative publicity from her 72-day marriage to Kris Humphries, but Skechers says that split had nothing to do with this one.
"Kim Kardashian has had a tremendously positive effect on the Skechers brand," a statement by the company provided to TheWrap reads. "Not only did Kim's Skechers Super Bowl ad generate over 1.6 billion positive media impressions for Skechers, but she played a big part in Skechers moving up last year from 388 to 99 among companies with the highest brand trust."
The statement goes on to note that Kardashian's contract with the company "simply came to an end" at the close of last year, adding, in seeming reference to a USA Today article on the topic, "To say that she was 'dropped' or "replaced' is misleading and untrue … in fact we continue to discuss ways that we may work together in the future."
"Kim got us more attention than we ever dreamed," Skechers Fitness president Leonard Armato told USA Today. "We have to establish Skechers as more than a lifestyle company."
The new ad will feature the Skechers' spokes-pooch wearing the company's new high-tech GOrun shoes and racing a pack of greyhounds. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban will also appear in the ad.
"I'm not Kim Kardashian," Cuban acknowledges to the newspaper. "But one of the things I do know is high technology and how to use it. "
Kardashian's Super Bowl ad for the shoe company last year featured the "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" star writhing on the floor in a revealing workout outfit, before breaking up with her trainer in favor of Skechers' Shape-Ups.
Feeling nostalgic? Relive the glory by watching the ad in the video.
