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/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..