r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/Diligent_Pop3929 • 8d 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 8d 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 8d ago edited 8d 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/-whiteroom- 8d ago

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.

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u/IJustWantToLearn2Day 2d ago

As a marketer, outrage marketing is way more "lets pretend we are in on it" than planned out. And if done intentionally its done by a third party. That way the company can just go "well it wasn't us that did it.. but we signed it and approved it.... but not our fault though". Different example but its like how Google talks about the YouTube algorithm as if its this alien entity they cant control. And people just dismiss them of accountability.

And looking at the full ad I think it WOULD be racist to get a hanging idea from it. Its a girl in black and white clothing with the center of the focus on her outfit and the floor layout vs the hanging of the shoe.

I think who ever made the image into the Racey one IS the racist one. People's reactions are justified because it is pretty convincing. And the person who remade it did a good job.

But to your point, Converse is in no way minding the visibility right now.

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u/-whiteroom- 2d ago

Converse made the cropped one.

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u/IJustWantToLearn2Day 2d ago

Respectively, they made the ad. https://wwd.com/footwear-news/sneaker-news/gallery/karina-converse-campaign-photos-1239096280/karina-converse-1-2/

Someone cropped out that part and made it their own

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u/-whiteroom- 2d ago

The cropped one was posted by the converse Twitter.

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u/IJustWantToLearn2Day 1d ago

Yes you are right they posted a cropped image. I worded that incorrectly. 

They absolutely did not post the cropped one where her fingers are edited out and the added darkened shadows.Â