Lacoste spent over $7.5 million in advertising in 2010, the same year that its then-designer, Christophe Lemaire, jumped ship for Hermès. The label is currently trying to attract younger, hipper consumers and distance itself from paunchy middle-aged dads who have worn their alligator shirts since the seventies. And as everyone knows, there's nothing that twentysomethings love more than trendy clubs and food trucks!

Reports the Times:

Employees at the Soho House and two Hotel Gansevoort locations — all in Manhattan — also are wearing clothing provided free by Lacoste ... Focusing on fashionable markets like New York, Miami and Los Angeles, promotions have included Lacoste-branded food trucks that prowled the streets of Miami and handing out 3,000 red rubber crocodiles in Manhattan.

But of course, a brand always needs some celebrities on its side, too; enter Andy Roddick (he's designed a line of Lacoste-branded tennis clothes for the label) and, more recently (and much more randomly), Leighton Meester. Lacoste partnered with Jared Eng of JustJared to do a video with the Gossip Girl star in July, which seems to have nothing to do with the brand except that it was filmed in a small creepy room covered with Lacoste logos.

So, in other words, the label is still in a bit of an awkward phase. But on an optimistic note, apparently 80 people wearing red Lacoste polos will be roaming the streets of New York on September 8 giving out $50 gift certificates. Which is much better than a red rubber crocodile, at least.

Lacoste Recasts Itself in Its Own Prestige [NYT]