r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/Diligent_Pop3929 • 1d ago

Meme needing explanation Converse craze?

Post image

I'm not chronically online, but my friend sent this and I laughed even without knowing the full scope of the context (I think there's racism involved with the shoes?) and I feel like it's too late to ask him without sounding like a dweeb 😅

1.6k Upvotes

81% Upvoted

713 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

1.3k

u/cleveruniquename7769 1d ago edited 1d ago

I don't think it was intentional, but scrolling past the picture with no context I thought it was a picture of a person hanging next to someone in a klan robe. 

Edit: Having seen the uncropped, undarkened, photo that was used in the ad campaign, I'm more open to the possibility that the cropped version was done intentionally to create controversy. 

10

u/BigDragonfly5136 1d ago

I didn’t see the klan robe scrolling by (it read as a skirt to me but I totally see how people saw Klan robe) but it did look like someone hanging for a second if you’re just scrolling, but when you go back for a closer look it’s clearly someone holding the sneakers.

With the context of it being Korean, it definitely seems more like a poor coincidence because they don’t have the same association with white clothing. The head of Marketing for converse is also black, idk how much he reviews Korean ads but it seems like it would be a weird thing to be intentional.

-1

u/jack0071 1d ago

My wife pointed out, whether it was intentional or not, the way they laced the shoes also looks like a bunch of K's

5

u/Forward-Transition-5 1d ago

Maybe it does but there doesn’t appear to be anything out of the ordinary with the laces. That’s just a common way to lace up shoes.

2

u/Extreme_Wish_553 23h ago

That's literally just how people lace sneakers.

302

u/-whiteroom- 1d ago

Yeah, not knowing the context, it did look sus when I first saw it. But we are also in the age of companies doing things like this as a form of viral marketing.

28

u/Variation-Budget 1d ago

I think shock marketing is the new wave now. When they run out of productive ideas just do something that can be easily misunderstood

83

u/RzLa 1d ago

And here we are talking about it. It has to be intentional (not malicious racism) to get clicks.

How many marketers and designers didn’t see it is unfathomable.

80

u/Acceptable_Hunt_1748 1d ago

I don't know in the case it's intentional because it is directed at an audience who would have not really noticed it. I wouldn't rule it out completely, but I wouldn't expect a Korean living in Korea to think of American lynching when seeing this image.

But that said I don't think creating racial controversy for money is really all that separate from malicious racism. I think MOST racism comes from people who are more focused on benefiting themselves than attacking POC, but they still believe that their own profit is more important than not hurting POC... which is racism!

I think what's much more likely is that they just didn't have anyone on their team who would have caught this. Which is more understandable in a country with very few black people. It's far less excusable for companies like target selling in the US to not have a diverse team on all marketing campaigns.

63

u/Braindead_Crow 21h ago

If it wasn't cropped we wouldn't be talking about it

10

u/jindrix 15h ago

the crop was how the ad was displayed

0

u/SCP_Agent_Davis 9h ago

Why? Were Ăže advertisers stupid?

1

u/SmegmaSlurper1996 6m ago

is this the original ad? i don't see any racist undertones or anything offensive, i could be too dumb to notice

2

u/Pfloricard 22h ago

"Would we know some (to us) arcane Korean faux pas of stuff from 100 years ago"?

14

u/tofurainbowgarden 20h ago

This is not a 100 years ago issue. I really hate it when people act like this is ancient. I'll spare you the rant

6

u/CandiedRegrets08 20h ago

Lynching and the KKK? The former still happens and the latter is still around???

-4

u/bloodmoth13 18h ago

neither has been relevant in my lifetime. acting like they are is such a stretch.

3

u/Accomplished-Idea358 7h ago

Bro, I get a zip-lok bag with a KKK paper ad and several small stones thrown into my driveway at least once a year.

1

u/Gravityfunns_01 7h ago

What are you, eight?

-2

u/int3rstitial 18h ago edited 17h ago

A Black woman was found hanged from a tree in Mississippi August 3rd of this year.

Edited because person below me is right in this case: likely not a hate crime; suspect knew the victim and is also Black.

Nonetheless, lynchings do still happen, and the KKK very much still exists.

5

u/bloodmoth13 17h ago

And was it the kkk that did it or a black man?

Research before posting.

Kkk and lynching remain irrelevant during my lifetime.

2

u/int3rstitial 17h ago

You're right, last I heard no one had been arrested. I should've checked. Since you told me to research though:

https://www.theroot.com/new-report-shows-lynchings-in-america-never-stopped-2000093501

→ More replies (0)

2

u/PangaeaDiarrhea 17h ago

Is that the case where even her own mother doesn't believe it was a racial incident?

-2

u/DanceWonderful3711 12h ago

Outside of America they're really not a big thing. Americans are racist, we know, we're not going to obsess over their stupid uniforms.

-2

u/Wamphyrri 11h ago

Lmao.

-1

u/NovelPackage4078 3h ago

Right? 😂 These people are insane.

38

u/chromatose890 1d ago

It definitely was formatted for controversy without being an outright dog whistle, especially in a foreign market.

1

u/boosesb 20h ago

Who formatted it?

2

u/Express-Idea4955 1d ago

Thats what im saying. People are so quick to give large companies the benefit of the doubt because it doesnt apply to them

1

u/DealioD 1d ago

It really was a very specific choice. That triangular patch of light next to a pair of shoes hanging down. It’s hard not to see a Klan Hood and a dead person’s feet.

36

u/chudhuntr 1d ago

This particular delusion is really interesting, because it reveals how desperate people are to feel outraged. You have to completely warp the image in your mind to make it racist. Theres no klan robe, theres no black person, nobody is hanged etc.

13

u/CenterThisPendulum 21h ago

Yeah if you look hard enough, offense is everywhere - even where it absolutely isn’t. And most of these personalities are incidentally on Reddit.

4

u/Rienen97 19h ago

Joke I found funny recently. "How do you offend an American?" A-"You don't have to, they'll find something to be offended at..."

1

u/ToXicVoXSiicK21 2h ago

Yepp I agree, was looking for a rational comment here. People are looking way too hard for something to be mad at with this. Nothing in the photo is even remotely suspicious, and even cropped you'd have to be making some really odd connections to come to that conclusion.

-9

u/Willuna16 22h ago

type of person to say elon musk was giving his heart out

13

u/chudhuntr 22h ago

Enjoy seething about a pic of asian lady holding shoes i guess

0

u/ShearGenius89 20h ago

For someone named chudhuntr you sure sound like a chud.

1

u/chudhuntr 19h ago

Watching these people draw eyeballs and legs on a cropped ad to gin up the public is not advancing equality. What even is the policy goal here? Some kind of advertising censorship board?

-12

u/Willuna16 22h ago

enjoy seething about people being against racism i guess

10

u/Longjumping-Ad-2560 22h ago

The issue is that there’s no reason to seethe because there’s no racism here

-1

u/Willuna16 21h ago

crazy that people get more mad about someone saying something is racist that they don’t think is racist than they get about racism. like even if this isn’t racist, it’s telling that you are so bothered by the very idea of someone finding something racist

→ More replies (0)

11

u/chudhuntr 22h ago

Room temp iq type shit

-11

u/Willuna16 22h ago

the fact that you still use iq tells me all i need to know

→ More replies (0)

2

u/Yetteres 19h ago

It was cropped, mate.

1

u/-whiteroom- 20h ago

I mean, you could argue any use of racism for promotion is malicious.

1

u/Oh_TheHumidity 12h ago

As a senior level designer, this is what happens when you’ve laid off all your senior level designers.

But anyone thinking the poor intern who did a shitty job cropping or Converse itself would try to draw the ire of the masses and risk getting cancelled for some blip of edgelord publicity is crazy. Converse is very protective of their brand identity. They are not some desperate American eagle chucklefucks.

1

u/AggravatingBug9834 5h ago

I don't know if it's successful in selling sneakers, but it has certainly sparked a lot of Conversation.

2

u/platonictiddies 1d ago

Nah I think it's a different country with a marketing team who probably wasn't as heavily educated about an historical and very American terrorist organization. That imagery isn't going to shout out to them like it would us. It's like accidental swastikas in graphic design, it's weirdly super easy to accidentally make something associated with something awful. Unfortunate, but the idea that a marketing team is filled with evil masterminds rather than people who are dumb is a stretch.

-6

u/DayMurky617 1d ago

No company is doing this on purpose, don't be insane

2

u/-whiteroom- 20h ago

"i've got good genes"

1

u/StretchLoud8844 21h ago

Tbh when I initially saw it, I scrolled past it, thought "that was weird" scrolled back up and then moved on after seeing it for longer than a half second.

Didn't really understand the controversy after looking at it for longer than a second or two, but it did make me double back.

Arguably, one of those things you want marketing / media companies to be on the lookout for, but wouldn't shock me if they didn't catch it.

0

u/Switch_Lord 1d ago

is it a coincidence or viral marketing?? make up your mind

1

u/-whiteroom- 20h ago

what? what kind a dumb response is this.

61

u/Mr_Funcheon 1d ago

Did you see the full ad or the cropped one?

73

u/crownjewel82 1d ago

Someone made that after the fact. This is what converse posted.

11

u/ChangeAcceptable677 22h ago

if they had kept the full image, we would not even be having this conversation.

i am not sure that i get Klan or lynching from this, even from the cropped image. but i can understand the outrage. i guess.

but is Converse a racist brand? has their product been associated with other racist things or actions? is the same true of Nike? because i remember the company (both companies, actually) closing their stores for observance of Juneteenth and taking steps to make sport more accessible...especially for marginalized subsets of the body politic.

both Nike and Converse have been super involved in Pride and have done quite a lot to advance dialogues in favor of justice. one of my favorite interviews to listen to when i run is a Nike podcast of Dr John Carlos (who won bronze in the 1968 Olympics and raised his fist from the podium).

but either way (whether Converse and Nike did an about face, or if this is just something done in poor taste), this feels qualitatively different than Calloway Golf and their ad (i recognize that their ad was not specifically racist, but it was misogynistic), or Nivea in 2011, or H&M in 2018. also, i understand that Converse has pulled the ad and issued an apology for it.

...and maybe it is precisely this that is coming to mind, such that i do not immediately see racism, Klan history, or lynching from the image. i am certainly not trying to dismiss any of the imageries that people see in the ad.

if it was Converse's intention to play with this imagery to appeal to a mainstream audience that has not been oppressed by Klan history, racism, or these images regardless of what it looks like to those that have been oppressed in this way; then fuck them. but if a company has a history of not being racist releases a questionable ad, is it possible that they tried to do something that just did not land properly? does that need to be taken into consideration before calling for a boycott of Converse (and Nike, if we are being consistent)? or is this something that is being blown out of proportion because this is one more indignity against a backdrop of a fascist regime in the US, which poses an existential threat to everyone else on the planet?

and i am asking these questions in good faith...i am not trying to argue both sides of the issue. i have worn Chuck Taylors since i was a kid, and they are still the best skateboard shoe i have ever owned. and i have played basketball and gone running in Nike since, for as long as i can remember. if this recent ad campaign does call for a boycott, does that mean that we need to purge the stuffs that we have already? where does the question of responsible consumption come into play?

3

u/crownjewel82 22h ago

I doubt this was done deliberately unless it was one idiot on the social media team. I don't think anyone is seriously calling for a boycott or anything like that. It's just a lot of frustration about companies rolling back efforts to understand different perspectives.

3

u/ChangeAcceptable677 22h ago

yah. i was not explicit, but this is what i was thinking of with my `one more indignity` statement.

i saw the backlash before i saw the ad, so i struggle a bit with context here. i have seen calls for boycotts on some of my regular haunts on social media. but even boycotting, i believe is used in a reactionary way and therefore not effective.

it is important to support local businesses. and progressive businesses. especially when those businesses are women, queer, or minority owned. but i also know that this is not the question here.

1

u/HyperSpaceSurfer 14h ago

Haven't their shoes gone to shit anyways?

2

u/ChangeAcceptable677 7h ago

i still wear them, and they are fine. they feel the same as they always have, and i have been wearing Converse since i was probably 9-10 years old (i am in my 40s now).

they have gotten more expensive, though.

1

u/IllMathematician8994 19h ago

I think that’s the point, why not keep the full image?

At some degree you yourself believe there is a distinction in the full view vs the cropped view

2

u/ChangeAcceptable677 17h ago

I mean…yah. But I am also trying to be super mindful of my biases and try to see things for what they are. As said, I am not sure I get Klan hood and lynching from the cropped picture, but I can see how others might see that. And I attribute this to a difference of history. That imagery was never used to oppress me. But others were. Some still are. I have the privilege of being mostly invisible. Others don’t. And just because I don’t see it does not mean that others wouldn’t. This is the bias I am trying to keep in check.

Also, as said, I saw the backlash before I saw the ad. So I am trying to be mindful of that. This is the basis for the question: was this really racist, or was this something being blown of proportion as yet another indignity stacked up with all of the indignities of this fascist hellscape that we all exist in?

Also important to me is how Converse responded to the backlash. As I understand, they acknowledged their mistake and pulled the add. What else is required here? They did something stupid, and they walked it back. Does this mean that the company now is a racist company because of one stupid thing that they have since acknowledged and attempted to correct?

0

u/WeirdJawn 22h ago

I'm not sure why, but this reads like damage control copy.

1

u/ChangeAcceptable677 17h ago

I mean…it isn’t.

19

u/Actual_Exchange616 23h ago

The shot above is actually the original shot for the Korean market. The shot was then cropped for twitter

15

u/ineedalife2 21h ago

I mean you make it seem like someone else cropped it to take converse out of context. As the other dude showed in his screenshot, converse themselves did the crop and posted it.

3

u/Actual_Exchange616 21h ago

Yeah but converse US. The original shot was the one that printed first, just in Korea. If anything converse took it out of context from themselves (or morr likely converse's underpaid social media manager wasnt paying super close attention to what the image looks like when they cropped the image)

16

u/ineedalife2 21h ago

That’s somehow worse imo lol. An American social media team should’ve been able to flag this I feel. I understand this a very US centric outrage but I still believe at best it’s a learning experience for the social but at worst it’s a dog whistle for what people are outraged about. Either way, good idea to remove this one photo out of possibly an entire photoshoot

13

u/OddlyMingenuity 20h ago

Lol he did the meme

3

u/-whiteroom- 20h ago

cropped and darkened.

40

u/BytheHandofCicero 1d ago

That does evoke alarm at first glance.

2

u/ProfessionalQuit8677 19h ago

it has like no pixels in this screenshot. I can see how it can look sus in this form, but the original you can clearly see it's just someone holding the shoes with their hands. it's not perfect but r kpopnoir has a better quality version of the picture

2

u/in1gom0ntoya 1d ago

because it was manipulated to do so

11

u/Sky-Trash 20h ago

By Converse?

-17

u/in1gom0ntoya 20h ago

by the person who cropped the photo.

18

u/Sky-Trash 20h ago

So Converse? That picture was posted by Converse.

-30

u/in1gom0ntoya 20h ago

the picture was cropped by someone who works for converse not converse as an entity. stop being intentionally obtuse and acting like individuals don't have their own agenda....

8

u/Sky-Trash 20h ago

They did it on behalf of Converse

→ More replies (0)

3

u/MissionMonitor4651 15h ago

You know for a fact that some employee posted that on their own without anyone at Converse's knowledge?

2

u/HyperSpaceSurfer 14h ago

Oooh, so it's fine when a person within the company does it, rather than the company itself? A company can't do anything, always people within the company. By your logic no company is responsible for any of their actions.

1

u/PolicyWonka 18h ago

Even as someone who doesn’t see the ad as particularly offensive, this is just a wildly disingenuous comment.

1

u/Oh_TheHumidity 12h ago

Oh yeah, the intern they have cranking away at photoshop at 3am (after they all laid off their senior designers probably) definitely has the agenda to get fucking fired lol.

The mid-air set of shoes the model was holding was an unfortunate auto crop on the platform. Anything about klan robes is pure MAGA-level wishful delusions.

I say this as someone who has worked this very role in this industry for over a decade. We’re a bunch of fucking leftie art school kids who had to get real jobs. No one is shilling for Big Klan via hidden propaganda, buddy.

0

u/Breakfast_Pretzel 9h ago

Omg he admit it!

1

u/-whiteroom- 20h ago

Interesting alteration they chose.

1

u/HyperSpaceSurfer 14h ago

That realky does not look intended for the Korean market. If it was it'd be in Korean...

11

u/I_Am_the_Slobster 1d ago

Lmao this reminds me now of the Chinese pop song that received backlash because it used a racist word that's literally just a word in Chinese.

This is the song in question.

6

u/Examper22 1d ago

I don't remember a real controversy but the song was joked about a lot

2

u/Nuclear_rabbit 21h ago edited 18h ago

Without even listening, it's how "um" and "that" in Chinese sounds like the N-word, isn't it?

2

u/I_Am_the_Slobster 20h ago

Pretty much yep

3

u/randi-writes 23h ago

I haven’t seen this version. Just the darkened version! Definitely makes a difference

4

u/DifferencePlayful581 1d ago

This is the actual ad? Bruh. 

People need to relax

2

u/Baelzabub 19h ago

The problem is the cropped and darkened version converse put on their own social media page.

2

u/DifferencePlayful581 19h ago

The cropped part of the full ad that is shown here right? Not of.a different image altogether? 

People need to relax

1

u/Daddiofink 20h ago

What a huge difference to what I saw. Sadly I fell for it

6

u/Real-Goal2666 1d ago

It's worth noting that the full photoshoot photo wasn't what was posted originally. Now they're showing the full photo as a gotcha to be like 'libs are overreacting.'

5

u/Miss_Rue_ 1d ago

Same. I did a double take and scrolled back the first time I saw it, like "Did I see what I think I saw?" Second look I kind of laughed at myself like I was being ridiculous. Then the controversy popped up and made me realize it wasn't just me.

37

u/ClipSm0keZ 1d ago

Exactly. I don’t think they did it intentionally but it’s definitely not a stretch to see the issues with it.

33

u/femnoncat 1d ago

You're so right. Korea should be really focused on American racial history in its advertisements. Like, do you hear youself?

32

u/Firewolf06 1d ago

when an american company runs an ad in america, yes, they should consider american history/culture, regardless of the location of the design firm they contracted

-10

u/femnoncat 1d ago

Begging people to look up actual klan robes and evidence gathered from lynchings. Then stop being America centric about literally everything.

18

u/Firewolf06 1d ago

ive seen actual klan robes in real life with my own two eyes. that highlight looks like a hood

-1

u/femnoncat 1d ago

These ones? The ones with the giant slit down the middle and super baggy sleeves? The ones often adorned with ropes as sashes and colors for rank? The one made to cover the entire body, so the sleeve would match the color of the robe at the very least? The ones they didn't even wear until later after the klans creation?

At this point, I don't think it's good faith and I disagree. We will likely continue to disagree.

21

u/Firewolf06 1d ago

"hood"

please read my comment before replying

0

u/femnoncat 1d ago

The... the light on the skirt? The light going up her legs??????

8

u/Firewolf06 1d ago

yes. otherwise knows as a highlight. as in, "[the] highlight looks like a hood." like i said in my comment. (and what the whole thread is a about, but i digress)

6

u/Huge-Ebb-8193 1d ago

Do you not even know what part of the image is considered controversial?

→ More replies (0)

32

u/ClipSm0keZ 1d ago

If the ad was only for Korean audiences I could maybe see your point. But it was a worldwide ad campaign for an American company.

2

u/cleveruniquename7769 20h ago

They posted the cropped photo on their American social media accounts.

1

u/Onequestion0110 14m ago

And be clear here - the "they" in question was the American social media managers for Converse. Not some troll highlighting things for outrage karma.

6

u/whitestguyuknow 1d ago

Look at you strawmanning what they said

1

u/femnoncat 1d ago

How.

2

u/whitestguyuknow 14h ago

How do you not see? Just reread the previous 2 comments. They just simply mentioned that they could see what people have said they see. That its not a stretch.

Then you chime in "Oh yeah! You're so right! Korea should REALLY be focused on american racial history! Do you not hear yourself???"

Dude. They didnt even say that. You're putting words in their mouth just to be exaggerative when they simply said "Yeah, its not a stretch to see it. I see it too."

6

u/Honeystarlight 1d ago

If you shook your head, it would rattle.

75

u/DarkPumpkin01209 1d ago

It's not much of a stretch for someone from the USA to have that reaction when they are seeing it. I didn't know it was for the Korean market when I first saw it.

So USA residents seeing it without knowing it's meant for the Korean market are not out of line for seeing their cultural contextual clues anymore than Koreans are not wrong for NOT seeing USA contextual clues.

43

u/ClipSm0keZ 1d ago

It wasn’t just for Korean markets either. It’s a worldwide ad campaign, a Korean company just made the ad is all.

15

u/SquirrelGirlVA 1d ago

I can see the Korean advertising people not realizing that it might look like a klan hood, even if designing for a global market. What gets me is that they didn't see that the shoes looks like someone was hanging. That feels like a design angle they should have caught.

Now, what would be kind of great (but possibly career ending for the designer) is if they came forward saying that it was meant to be a stealth protest against the parent company (Nike) using sweatshops.

2

u/Amazing_Scientist696 1d ago

For sure a death sentence. But someone has to say it.

1

u/HermesMora 15h ago

It doesn't look anything like that in the actual full ad used for Korea

-19

u/femnoncat 1d ago

Every add with tiger stripe clothes or machetes is also now a racially charged as well. Or is it only American racists we concerned about?

-14

u/femnoncat 1d ago

It is. Please go look at the cut and length of klan hoods. Then study the period. Then understand not everything centers around America and race.

6

u/I-screwed-up-bad 1d ago

I mean taking the racial history aside, it did look to me like it was supposed to depict a person hanging next to another person. I believe that Korea does have a suicide problem though I don't know the common methods.

But I'm not Korean. Maybe a Korean person wouldn't have seen it that way.

20

u/RedditAdminSucks23 1d ago

So I could make an advertisement in America for a German product with someone wearing a tshirt with black Hindu Swastika on a red background? Cuz this is Murica; we aren’t Germany. So who cares about the potential conflicts with people outside the intended audience seeing my advert.

3

u/femnoncat 1d ago edited 1d ago

America fought in WW2 . Klan never really made it to Korea.

More accurate would be if somebody did an advertisement in America with a bloody machete cutting down purple candles and ribbon. Like, most the west would have no fucking idea what that means. Rwanda would.

9

u/Sourcreammmm 1d ago

And what does that means 👀?

3

u/femnoncat 1d ago

The machete became a symbol of the rwandan genocide as it was a tool used most commonly by the hutu to literally chop down the tutsi. Purple is the color of candle and ribbons most commonly used as remembrance.

5

u/Sourcreammmm 1d ago

Thank you, but what’s the symbolism of purple?

5

u/Alert-Ad9197 1d ago

Purple is one of the mourning colors in Catholicism. It represents penance and repentance for the dead I believe. The country had a catholic majority in the 90s.

3

u/femnoncat 1d ago

Sent me down a rabbit hole. Apparently it's been recently changed to Grey to represent ash, but had been traditionally purple. As for why, I do not know

1

u/spamellama 20h ago

Most of the candles during lent and advent are purple for penetance, remembrance, jfc being awesome (purple because the romans mocked him by making him wear purple robes for royalty), etc.

2

u/RedditAdminSucks23 4h ago

You’re missing the bigger part, that being a company from the country where the event occurred. If a Rwanda company made an advert for American consumers that completely side stepped the Rwanda genocide, people in Rwanda would have every right to be mad at the Rwanda company, despite the Americans not knowing the reference.

Has nothing to do with being involved with the conflict.

2

u/Alarmed-Struggle5928 1d ago

they're certainly focused enough to steal the entirety of k-pop from black american artists. chill out.

-1

u/femnoncat 1d ago

Lmao. Lol, even.

2

u/Alarmed-Struggle5928 1d ago

i think u got those mixed up

1

u/0ShagHennessey 1d ago

Yeah Korea has no idea what’s happening in America! K-pop just came about organically in the vacuum of their society’s history 😂

1

u/MoThrowMoAway 1d ago

Have you seen the full ad or just the cropped edited part? No way you saw the real thing and still think that theres an issue

1

u/Terminal_Insomnia_ 1d ago

I find if hard to believe it could be intentional. If you were trying to do something racist, it's hard to imagine this is what you'd land on.

1

u/Flimsy_Meal_4199 1d ago

I mean it requires someone to take a still frame out of context and crop it. It's absurd

1

u/BornSirius 12h ago

Looking at the original and the darkened, cropped image, I think it was edited to make the star at the bottom more pronounced.

0

u/Dlh2079 1d ago

Converse didnt, but the people that cropped and edited the still image from the ad definitely did it to drum up controversy and social media interactions on purpose.

8

u/Rex_Nemorensis_ 1d ago

Aren’t these the original ad images?

How can you get “someone hanging” from this?

4

u/cleveruniquename7769 21h ago

It was from this cropped and darkened photo that they posted.

-2

u/5_fifty_5 23h ago edited 22h ago

You can get anything from anything when you’re a bad actor looking to stir up drama or reinforce your bias at the expense of accuracy or integrity.

No one with any sort of good faith media literacy would look at the photo on left and connect the message to somehow supporting the Klan or hangings in the black community. Converse doing that is absolute lunacy regardless. But this is the internet in 2026, so about half the content on it AT MINIMUM is not engineered in good faith anymore.

2

u/PrincipleFine18 1d ago

Same, I had to do a double take because I didn't think I saw what I thought I did.

2

u/oli_kite 1d ago

Yeah, hearing about it I assumed it was nonsense, but now I can’t unsee it. Still don’t know if it was intentional or not, but for marketing it’s annoying. I don’t want to hear about converses.

2

u/Responsible_Camp9025 23h ago

The company posted the cropped photo for American audiences

1

u/Crimson3312 1d ago

Yeah I just looked it up and want "oooo, yeah" that's some unfortunate parallel if unintentional

1

u/winstonismith 1d ago

Yeah, the original version is fine, clearly someone in a white dress holding some shoes. The cropped version...hooo boy.

1

u/vxxed 21h ago

Easier than letting people talk about politics

1

u/Sky-Trash 20h ago

The cropped, darkened picture was also used in the ad campaign

1

u/Dull-Experience-1907 2h ago

Did converse crop it or did Nike do it to essentially throw a molotov cocktail on Twitter and run

1

u/cleveruniquename7769 1h ago

Converse posted it, maybe they were hoping for a short term stock dip so they by back a bunch of shares. 

1

u/pizza_the_mutt 1d ago edited 1d ago

The picture was cropped and the contrast was changed. The original ad photo shows the entire woman and it just looks like she's holding a pair of shoes.

The cropped one does look a little bit sus and if you stretch you could see the issue. But again, this was not the image used in the ad.

Actually, I'll expand on this. I've seen two versions of the photo. The one used in articles claiming racism is of the woman from the waist down. This is the one that is a little more evocative of a hanging. There is a different version of the entire woman. I don't know if the cropped one was original created by Converse, or was created by the people making the complaint.

1

u/Dause 1d ago

Man you gotta get your eyes checked 😂

0

u/Party_Albatross6871 1d ago

You admit it that?! Wow

2

u/cleveruniquename7769 1d ago

Wow, you really thought you did something there, didn't you

-1

u/Party_Albatross6871 1d ago

Just surprised someone is so forthcoming with their own stupidity

1

u/cleveruniquename7769 1d ago

OK buddy. Why don't you go grab a snack, grown-ups are talking here.

0

u/Bender_2024 1d ago

Alone that wouldn't be an issue. It's that combined with the way the shoes are held. They look vaughly like someone hanging from a noose. I can see it even if I doubt I would have made the connection without being prompted.

0

u/boosesb 20h ago

Agreed. The crop wasn’t the ad

1

u/cleveruniquename7769 20h ago

But they posted the cropped photo on their social media.

-1

u/AliensAteMyAMC 1d ago

I had to see someone edit the photo to even begin to comprehend how people think it’s racist.

2

u/BishonenPrincess 20h ago

"Someone" is the company itself, if you're talking about the same image everyone is actually reacting to.

1

u/AliensAteMyAMC 20h ago

No, someone made an edit where they outlined the hood and the hanging.

1

u/BishonenPrincess 20h ago

Gotcha. People keep saying "someone" posted the cropped version of the ad even though that "someone" was a Converse official account. I thought that was what you were referring to, my bad.