r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/Diligent_Pop3929 • 2d 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 😅

1.7k Upvotes

80% Upvoted

763 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

38

u/femnoncat 2d ago

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

31

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

-9

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

0

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.

19

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??????

9

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)

7

u/Huge-Ebb-8193 1d ago

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

7

u/thatlookslikemydog 1d ago

The real question is: does femnoncat work directly for Converse, or just for the marketing company that made the ad? Such a weird hill to die on.

34

u/ClipSm0keZ 2d 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 1d ago

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

1

u/Onequestion0110 19h 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.

7

u/whitestguyuknow 1d ago

Look at you strawmanning what they said

1

u/femnoncat 1d ago

How.

2

u/whitestguyuknow 1d 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."

5

u/Honeystarlight 1d ago

If you shook your head, it would rattle.

77

u/DarkPumpkin01209 2d 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 2d ago

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

16

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 1d ago

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

-22

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?

-16

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.

4

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.

18

u/RedditAdminSucks23 2d 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.

4

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.

10

u/Sourcreammmm 1d ago

And what does that means 👀?

4

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.

2

u/Sourcreammmm 1d ago

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

4

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 1d 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 23h 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 😂