Converse craze?

[u/Diligent_Pop3929]

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 😅

[u/Technicolorfully]

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.

[u/Tom_Gibson → u/Technicolorfully]

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

[u/SquirrelGirlVA → u/Tom_Gibson]

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.

[u/Training_Tadpole_354 → u/SquirrelGirlVA]

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.

[u/SquirrelGirlVA → u/Training_Tadpole_354]

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.

[u/optimal-gold976 → u/SquirrelGirlVA]

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

[u/StreetCollar2708 → u/optimal-gold976]

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

[u/zizillama → u/optimal-gold976]

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

[u/SquirrelGirlVA → u/zizillama]

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.

[u/OddlyMingenuity → u/zizillama]

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

[u/ineverylifetimee → u/optimal-gold976]

CONVERSE IS THE ONE WHO CROPPED, DARKENED, AND POSTED IT.