Converse removes sneaker ad that drew comparisons with KKK imagery
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Converse apologised and removed a new sneaker advertisement after an intense backlash on social media.
PHOTO: CONVERSE
Emmett Lindner
- Converse removed a sneaker ad after social media backlash for imagery resembling Ku Klux Klan robes and lynching, which many found offensive and racist.
- The ad featured shadows and lighting that critics said evoked painful symbols of racism, prompting Converse to apologise and pull the campaign.
- The campaign was part of a promotion with K-pop star Karina, and Converse pledged to do better, though details on the ad's creators remain unclear.
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BOSTON – American footwear and apparel company Converse said it had taken down a sneaker advertisement that set off intense backlash as social media users said it was evocative of Ku Klux Klan imagery.
One image in the campaign featured the bottom half of a person wearing a white garment, which netizens likened to a Klan robe, while the figure holds a pair of black sneakers.
The lighting is such that the shoes appear to be dangling in the air as if someone were being hanged, critics said.
The shadows create the outline of a long, tapering triangle that was compared to the pointed hood of a Klan robe, an image of racism indelibly seared into American history.
“As a black man and someone who loves Converse shoes, I find this very insensitive and distasteful,” Kendall Peacock, who runs the Education Firm, a tutoring and mentorship programme in Atlanta, said on social media.
“Deliberate racist intent hasn’t been established yet, but that doesn’t erase the impact,” he said.
Stephanie Schwartz, a social justice photographer, wrote on social media: “Every photographer can tell you, whoever did this ad knew exactly what they were doing.”
Netizens said that, taken together, the design evoked a lynching.
“We’re sorry,” Converse said in an e-mailed statement on Sept 19. “We understand why this image is deeply upsetting and recognise that we got this wrong.”
“We removed it from our channels and are working to remove it everywhere it appeared,” the statement added. “This should not have happened and we will do better.”
It was not clear who designed or approved the advertisement. Converse did not respond to a request for further comment.
The photo was part of a campaign that started internationally at the end of August to promote the Chuck 70 X sneaker.
The promotion was a collaboration with South Korean singer Karina, who is a member of K-pop girl group Aespa. The 26-year-old was appointed as a global ambassador for Converse in June.
Representatives for Karina did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Converse introduced the first sneaker mass-produced for basketball players in 1917.
Chuck Taylors, or Chucks, as the style came to be known, were named after the company’s spokesman, Chuck Taylor, a well-known basketball player who joined the firm in the early 1920s.
In August, American retailer Target stopped selling a children’s Halloween costume that many said evoked racist stereotypes of black Americans.
The product depicted a circus clown costume with accessories including gloves, a top hat and a mask shaped like a grinning mouth with large teeth.
Critics said those features, in addition to a promotional image that appeared to show a black child wearing the costume, echoed caricatures from Jim Crow-era minstrel shows. NYTIMES
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.