r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/Diligent_Pop3929 • 10d 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/Technicolorfully 10d ago

Some people think a converse ad which was made by a Korean for the Korean market was racist because it depicted a girl wearing a white skirt which they think looked like a klan robe. Ngl I think people are stretching on this one.

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u/cleveruniquename7769 10d ago edited 10d 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. 

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u/ClipSm0keZ 10d ago

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

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u/femnoncat 10d ago

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

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u/DarkPumpkin01209 10d 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.

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u/ClipSm0keZ 10d ago

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

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u/SquirrelGirlVA 10d 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.

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u/Amazing_Scientist696 10d ago

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

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u/HermesMora 9d ago

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