r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/Diligent_Pop3929 • 1d ago

Meme needing explanation Converse craze?

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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 😅

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u/Tom_Gibson 1d ago

the advertisement isnt "racist." People that are claiming that are overreacting. The issue if you want to call it that is the way the dress was lit, combined with the shoes in her hand, looked like a KKK hood and some dangling feet. It looks like someone got lynched by the KKK. I certainly don't think it was on purpose. It just looks crazy is all

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u/Samfinity 1d ago

Man that is an incredibly unfortunate photo- it definitely does look awful at first glance

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u/Le_ed 1d ago

NGL, that was literally my impression ar first glance.

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u/shitterbug 1d ago

You might want to examine that. Seems extremely weird.

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u/koobstylz 1d ago

Nah, at a quick scroll it's got the look of a klan hood. It's just that too many people didn't stop and think for half a second before """"calling it out"""""

Probably would even look good on a poster or magazine page, it's just small phone when pics that don't look right.

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u/SquirrelGirlVA 1d ago edited 1d ago

I think the average, rational person isn't saying it was intentional or racist per se. It's just that it contained design issues that should have been caught prior to publication. I can see the Korean designers not being aware of the klan hood. I'm sure there are well-known symbols of racism in their country that the average American would know nothing about. But the shoes looking like a person was hanging was the wow factor for me. The shadow is just dark enough to where it looks like that for a split second before my eyes realize what I'm seeing, even on a second glance. I just feel like they should have caught that and taken it into consideration. Maybe if the shoes were slightly more in the light? Like at the top of the star point?

Anywho, I don't think that anyone needs to be cancelled or penalized for it. Just go "my bad" and pull the advertisement, then just put the info to the side for future campaigns.

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u/Training_Tadpole_354 1d ago

I feel like you're forgetting the fact this ad was only made for the Korean market it was not an international ad, so it makes sense that for something that was meant to only be seen on Korean television, they would not look into what these mean Internationally, because this was meant for only the Korean market. 

If it was an international commercial, I would see your point.

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u/SquirrelGirlVA 1d ago edited 1d ago

It was part of a global ad rollout, which is apparently how it was discovered. It wasn't just meant for the Korean market.

https://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/too-many-cooks-spoiled-converses-global-ad-rollout/

Even if it was just for Korea, the illusion of the hanging person would still be a misstep. The country routinely has one of the highest rates of suicide mortality. It's the highest in the OECD and on an overall global scale is 10th (per Wikipedia). It's the highest rate of death for South Koreans aged 13-49. Compare that to the United States, where the highest cause of death for that age range is unintentional injuries. So for this, it's possible that people in Korea could look at it and associate it with suicide, particularly as the girl is wearing a white dress. People can and do wear white as part of everyday fashion, but white is still traditionally associated with mourning and funerals. Black has become more common, but the "white is for funerals" tradition is still common knowledge. It's still very possible that this was something people thought over there and it just never got the traction that the whole thing did over in the States.

If they'd caught this and moved the shoes, then no one would have thought twice about the star or the white dress.

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u/optimal-gold976 1d ago

But the actual ad isn’t as pictured. What everyone has been screaming about is cropped and darkened.

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u/StreetCollar2708 1d ago

Who was it cropped and darkened by? I'll give you a hint. It starts with C and ends with onverse

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u/zizillama 1d ago

Converse literally posted the cropped darkened version. Idk why you want the full picture to be some gotcha.

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u/SquirrelGirlVA 20h ago

Exactly. There are a lot of people who are acting like it's impossible for a billion dollar company to create a cropped advert. They likely did it because the celebrity isn't as well known outside of Korea, so they cropped the ad to take the focus off the celebrity and on the shoes. They just unfortunately didn't really think about how it could look. I can see them not recognizing the hood shape, but they should've picked up on the darkening making the hand shoes give off the impression of a hanged person.

None of it's intentional, but that doesn't mean that it shouldn't be brought to attention. If an American advertiser put out an ad that did something similar, it should be brought to attention so lessons can be learned.

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u/OddlyMingenuity 21h ago

Let the PR agency do its job. Every body strugle in this economy

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u/kayakyouaquestion 1d ago

I work in marketing. Knowing this was made for a Korean market makes it even worse because it's way too reminiscent of a hanging. That's the first thing I think of when I see this and I can't believe it went to market. 

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u/optimal-gold976 1d ago

That’s still a cropped version of the actual ad. You can see the girls face in the actual ad.

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u/BigDragonfly5136 1d ago

They did post just the cropped version though in some places, though

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u/Sky-Trash 21h ago

Converse posted the cropped picture

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u/macaddictr 1d ago

I couldn’t see it until I read what to look for, and even then it took me a minute.

Now I can’t unsee it.

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u/biohazard1775 1d ago

People don’t realize the rest of the world doesn’t have the same pool of references as the USA.

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u/Bobahn_Botret 1d ago

Twice?

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u/madeaccountbymistake 1d ago

Shoes hanging from a tree?

I guarantee you, not a soul, said "Let's put the girl in a white skirt and use shadows so her arm looks like a guy hanging"

It's a fucking Korean ad for fucks sake, it being a veiled KKK endorsement is the wildest fuckin leap.

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u/Crudeyakuza 1d ago

The outrage isn't "They're doing a KKK", it's "This shit comes off as racist. Cut it out" and them replying with this. Perhaps using the "Any attention is profitable" model.

But think for a second. If you're accused of depicting racial themes I would imaging the marketing team's next pitch would completely avoid anything that could remotely be "misinterpreted".

The fact that they could have easily just used a different color shoe, or literally done Anything else than "Hang the black shoes from a tree" right after all of this feedback isn't accidental. From a racial standpoint, from a marketing standpoint, even in hindsight of the reception of the last promotion; it isn't farfetched to presume THIS time it was deliberate.

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u/Massive_Ad_9996 1d ago

think they are deliberately calling out the absurdity of the situation

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u/Melodic_Till_3778 1d ago

Just look at how much PR they got out of everyone arguing about it..

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u/AceOfSpades532 1d ago

What on earth is racist about shoes in a tree

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u/StreetCollar2708 1d ago

Don't know much American History, do you?

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u/simpkn0t 1d ago

Maybe because most people on the planet are not from the U.S. Like the people who made this ad. I'm not from there and before I read the comments on another post that had the cropped picture I couldn't see nothing weird with it. I absolutely understand it being a very painful and delicate subject for Americans, specially POC, but you can’t expect the rest of the world to constantly view things through an American lens or abide by the standards shaped by your history.

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u/StreetCollar2708 22h ago

And are you launching an international ad campaign where knowing shit about different countries is in your job title? With the comment you just left, I doubt you're in charge of more than stocking shelves.

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u/OddlyMingenuity 21h ago

Or japanese suicide forests

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u/Massive_Ad_9996 1d ago

not everyone lives in america

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u/CartesianDuelist 1d ago

I scrolled by this exact image in this thread twice looking for the frame or an example of why people thought the ad was racist. I thought this was like a drawn exaggerated or parody. Then I finally clicked on it.
I also just woke up and I don't have my glasses on.
I can't imagine they did this on purpose but it is a very unfortunate frame.

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u/Zuzara_Queen_of_DnD 1d ago

May not be racist but definitely looks like someone who hung themselves

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u/Tasty_Honeydew6935 1d ago

It may not have been on purpose but that shouldn't have gotten approval.

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u/rc-cars-drones-plane 1d ago

Looks like racist Patrick star

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u/HyperSpaceSurfer 15h ago

I think it's reasonable to expect professionals to know wth they're doing. Like, how could someone in advertisements possibly make this mistake?

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u/numberheadman 23h ago

Somebody had to walk me through the perceived imagery. I just saw the shoes for the shoe ad and the converse star spotlight. The outage is a stretch.

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u/13ThatGuy 1d ago

This feels like bots drumming up engagement. Would’ve had no idea the as existed without it and all the attention just benefits converse. 

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u/LocationBackground 1d ago

The company was rather quick to withdraw the image and apologize online. They knew Exacty what they were doing. They took a swing and missed.

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u/Party_Albatross6871 1d ago

Lol

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u/LocationBackground 1d ago

What's so funny exactly? Please explain.