‘Completely insane’: Converse ad sparks bizarre KKK controversy

News24 host Rowan Dean News24 host Rowan Dean mocks the backlash over a Converse advertisement after an image featuring a Korean pop star was accused of resembling a Ku Klux Klan hood and lynching. “This week also saw the completely insane events surrounding a sports shoe brand called Converse,” Mr Dean said. “Earlier in the week, a cropped version of an ad for the shoes featuring a Korean popstar appeared and was immediately labelled as racist. “It was quickly interpreted as being a Ku Klux Klan hood, the white pointed bit, with the dangling sneakers being a black person who had been lynched. “Having worked in advertising, I could immediately see that the star lighting had inadvertently created the white pointed shape on the dress, and that the shoes were obviously in the model's hands. “That seems to be an awful lot of effort to go through to make a bizarre and peculiar Ku Klux Klan subliminal reference.”