(NEW YORK) — Converse has discontinued an advertisement following public backlash last week over what critics said appeared to be Ku Klux Klan symbolism and lynching in the shoe and apparel company’s ad campaign.
One of the images in the ad showed the bottom half of a person wearing a white, calf-length skirt-like garment that some critics said resembled a KKK robe, while holding a pair of black sneakers in one hand with their arm fully extended down by their side.
Critics said lighting in the photograph makes the shoes look as if they are dangling in the air next to the person in the white garment, resembling someone being hanged.
Shadows in the photograph also create a triangle-shaped light on the white robe that critics said further resembled the top peak of a Klan hood.
“We’re sorry. We understand why this image is deeply upsetting and recognize that we got this wrong,” Converse, who is owned by Nike Inc., said in a statement to ABC News Monday. “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.”
Civil rights attorney Lee Merritt, who represented the family of Ahmaud Arbery, a Black man who was chased and fatally shot by three white men while jogging in Georgia in February 2020, weighed in on the controversial promotional campaign.
“We keep having this conversation because corporations keep failing the same test,” Merritt said in a social media post. “Do better means catching this before it airs — not after we’re offended.”
Rep. Troy Carter, D-La., said in a statement that the advertisement was neither creative nor artistic.
“Black pain is not a marketing prop,” Carter said. “Lynching is not a creative concept. The Ku Klux Klan is not an aesthetic.”
The photos were part of a campaign to promote the Chuck 70 X sneaker. The advertisement was a collaboration with K-pop singer Karina, who is with the group aespa.
ABC News has reached out to representatives of Karina for a comment.
ABC News’ Sabina Ghebremedhin contributed to this story.
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