Converse apologizes after backlash over sneaker ad deemed racist 

by Francis Akhalbey, Face2FaceAfrica.com

Converse has issued an apology after it received backlash over a sneaker ad that critics deemed to have racist elements.

Per CBS News, the sneaker company took down the ad in the wake of the backlash. 

The ad, posted on Instagram, showed K-pop singer Karina wearing a white skirt and holding a pair of Chuck 70 X sneakers. But critics said the lighting on Karina’s skirt, which was triangular, looked like a Ku Klux Klan hood. Critics additionally said that the way the singer was holding the pair of sneakers depicted an image of someone who had been lynched. 

“We’re sorry,” Converse said in a statement to the news outlet. “We understand why this image is deeply upsetting and recognize that we got this wrong. We removed it from our channels and are working to remove it everywhere it appeared. This should not have happened, and we will do better.”

Despite the apology, marketing experts and social justice advocates described the ad as culturally insensitive. Some critics also suggested that the ad could have been deliberately rolled out to gather attention by provoking backlash.

“It’s a strategy in an attention economy. We have the sense that these images move so many different gateways before they get in front of the public, so it’s hard to imagine nobody flagged what feels so abundantly apparent,” Nadine Smith, CEO of the racial justice organization, Color of Change, told CBS News.