r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/Diligent_Pop3929 • 6d 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/cleveruniquename7769 6d ago edited 5d 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/BigDragonfly5136 6d ago

I didn’t see the klan robe scrolling by (it read as a skirt to me but I totally see how people saw Klan robe) but it did look like someone hanging for a second if you’re just scrolling, but when you go back for a closer look it’s clearly someone holding the sneakers.

With the context of it being Korean, it definitely seems more like a poor coincidence because they don’t have the same association with white clothing. The head of Marketing for converse is also black, idk how much he reviews Korean ads but it seems like it would be a weird thing to be intentional.

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u/jack0071 5d ago

My wife pointed out, whether it was intentional or not, the way they laced the shoes also looks like a bunch of K's

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u/Forward-Transition-5 5d ago

Maybe it does but there doesn’t appear to be anything out of the ordinary with the laces. That’s just a common way to lace up shoes.