Mischa Barton's latest advertising campaign for Keds has a few eyes rolling - again.

A few days ago, a blogger at Pop Sugar wrote:

“For someone who is supposedly such a stylist trend setter, I wonder why she signed on to pimp Keds. There are so many other companies that would make more sense. Seems like her agent missed the boat on that one. Jane Magazine hosted a party to promote the new shoe line and since Mischa’s their spokesperson, she was there all dolled up in a pretty dress with those boring plain kicks.”

But similar criticisms have been rolling around since last summer, when Barton first signed with the casual shoe company. In May Ad Rants railed:

“Reading from a publicist cue card, Keds Corporation President Shawn Neville said, 'We are thrilled to extend and expand our successful relationship with Mischa through 2007 and across all international markets. Mischa personifies the Keds brand essence of authenticity, classic style, confidence and cool. Together, the Keds team and Mischa will continue to create product and marketing that reflect this essence and help Keds re-connect with its rich heritage and become a leading active lifestyle brand around the world.' How deep inside the head does the hammer have to be implanted before PR people realize real people don't talk like this? And, when they are forced to, they are made to sound like idiots.”

A few months later, Ad Rants took yet another bite:

“The campaign's tagline is 'Be Cool' and the word cool must be uttered by Mischa at least one hundred times throughout her appearances in the site's mini-videos. Not a bad choice for a tagline considering how many times people say "cool" in every day conversation. It's akin to Verizon's 'Can you hear me now?' tag which, as anyone who owns a cell phone knows, is said more than a few times every day.”

Bastardly.com also took a punch on the celebrity endorsement with an excellent use of Photoshop, and yesterday, Trent from Pink is the New Blog reacted to the most recent campaign with a simple, “Mischa Barton + Keds = Booooo!”

I’ve kept an eye out for the ads since they began hitting magazines last year. I think that most people would agree with me that in most of the photographs, Barton just looks kind of lame, all dressed down like a small town Blossom with oversized flower print dresses and stupid looking hats – a far cry from the stylish mix of high-end fashion that she is often praised for.

But even so, I think that employing Barton to sell Keds will turn out to be a marketing success. It wasn’t so long ago that the Keds brand was just another maker of ho-hum casual loaf-around shoes. Barton on the other hand, is one of the more recognized cast members of the hit good-looking-rich-kids-in-California television show, The O.C. The new style of Keds she’s getting paid millions to tout are a practical take on casual cool - just the style of the character that has made her famous.