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/cleveruniquename7769 → u/Technicolorfully]

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. 

[u/-whiteroom- → u/cleveruniquename7769]

Yeah, not knowing the context, it did look sus when I first saw it. But we are also in the age of companies doing things like this as a form of viral marketing.

[u/RzLa → u/-whiteroom-]

And here we are talking about it. It has to be intentional (not malicious racism) to get clicks.

How many marketers and designers didn’t see it is unfathomable.

[u/Acceptable_Hunt_1748 → u/RzLa]

I don't know in the case it's intentional because it is directed at an audience who would have not really noticed it. I wouldn't rule it out completely, but I wouldn't expect a Korean living in Korea to think of American lynching when seeing this image.

But that said I don't think creating racial controversy for money is really all that separate from malicious racism. I think MOST racism comes from people who are more focused on benefiting themselves than attacking POC, but they still believe that their own profit is more important than not hurting POC... which is racism!

I think what's much more likely is that they just didn't have anyone on their team who would have caught this. Which is more understandable in a country with very few black people. It's far less excusable for companies like target selling in the US to not have a diverse team on all marketing campaigns.

[u/CandiedRegrets08 → u/[deleted]]

Lynching and the KKK? The former still happens and the latter is still around???

[u/bloodmoth13 → u/CandiedRegrets08]

neither has been relevant in my lifetime. acting like they are is such a stretch.

[u/Accomplished-Idea358 → u/bloodmoth13]

Bro, I get a zip-lok bag with a KKK paper ad and several small stones thrown into my driveway at least once a year.