Converse ad featuring Karina of aespa sparks racism accusations

Users began posting the two images side by side. The combination of a tree, a ladder, and footwear again evoked associations with lynching and amplified the scandal. However, claims that both photographs were created by the same team are unconfirmed: according to Snopes, citing Palmes's founder, the Converse x Palmes campaign was shot in Italy.

The reaction

American actress Yvette Nicole Brown asked on Threads* whether what she saw was a lynching scene. Fitness blogger Kida Marie, comparing the two creatives, said the song Strange Fruit immediately came to mind — it became famous in Billie Holiday's performance and is dedicated to the lynchings of Black Americans. Other users called for a boycott of Converse and the firing of employees involved in creating and approving the ad.

No consensus emerged on social media. Some commenters considered the scandal the result of over-interpretation and pointed to the original concept: Karina stands under a spotlight shaped like Converse's signature star, and the caption to the post also played on the brand's star.

The company's response

Converse acknowledged the mistake and began removing the image from its resources. On the Chuck 70 X page, the image was replaced with other content featuring Karina. That was effectively the end of the public response: the brand did not explain the concept, did not say who was responsible for creating the photo, and declined to answer Associated Press's questions about its ad review procedures.

The topic of internal approvals became central. Users asked how many stages — from the creative team to marketing, lawyers, and management — the photo could have passed through before publication. American civil rights attorney Lee Merritt emphasized that an apology after publication does not answer the question of why potentially problematic imagery was not identified earlier.

A similar controversy arose a few weeks earlier around Callaway and Good Good: after the video was removed, the parties discussed who exactly had approved it. Advertising industry experts pointed out that the problem goes beyond a single employee's mistake — the volume of content and the number of platforms and partners are growing, while review systems do not always keep up with the pace of production.

*A product of Meta, recognized as extremist and banned in Russia