Converse Pulls Ad Criticized for Evoking Racist Imagery

Converse pulled an Instagram advertisement this week after online critics identified imagery they said evoked both the Ku Klux Klan and lynching. The ad featured K-pop singer Karina in a long white skirt, holding a pair of classic Chuck 70 X hi-top sneakers. The triangular shape of the skirt, observers noted, resembled a KKK hood. The way Karina was positioned holding the sneakers, they argued, conjured the image of a lynching victim.

The company, owned by Nike, moved quickly to remove the image from its channels and issue an apology. "We're sorry," Converse said in a statement. "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." The speed of the response, however, did not satisfy everyone watching the situation unfold.

Lee Merritt, a civil rights attorney in Texas, posted on Instagram that Converse's apology "doesn't undo what got past legal, marketing and leadership at every step." His observation pointed to a question that marketing experts and social justice advocates were asking: how did this image make it through multiple layers of review? Nadine Smith, CEO of Color of Change, a racial justice organization, suggested that in today's attention economy, the ad may have been designed to provoke outrage. "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," she told CBS News.

Marcus Collins, a marketing and culture expert at the Michigan Ross School of Business, offered a different assessment. He said he did not believe Converse's marketing team set out deliberately to cause offense. But intention, he argued, matters far less than how the public receives the image. "Converse's response was not commensurate with the amount of anguish people responded to the ad with," Collins said. The company now faces the harder work of rebuilding trust with consumers who saw the ad before it was taken down.

Converse is not alone in facing this kind of backlash in recent weeks. In August, Target stopped selling a children's Halloween costume that critics said evoked racist minstrel caricatures. Target acknowledged the misstep in a statement: "The costume is offensive and should never have been part of our assortment. It is no longer available for sale. We know this is especially hurtful for our Black guests, team members and partners. Removing the costume is an important first step, and the company is looking closely at how this happened and what needs to change to ensure this won't happen again."

Karina and her management company, SM Entertainment Group, did not respond to requests for comment. Converse, founded in Malden, Massachusetts, in 1908, has built its reputation over more than a century, first releasing its Chuck Taylor All Star basketball sneaker in 1917. The question now is whether the company can move past this moment and demonstrate that it has genuinely changed how it reviews creative work before it reaches the public.