Fitness content creator Kida Maree posted both ads side by side and wrote, “There is NO REASON why WE should see an advertisement & immediately think of Strange Fruit by Billie Holiday.”
To be sure, others on social media feel the outrage is overblown. Culture writer Meecham Whitson Meriweather on Threads compared it to the backlash that led to Pepsi’s July apology for its Wild Cherry post: “everyone is insane.”
Meriweather noted the caption posted under the ad featuring Karina that read: “Under stage lights or streetlights, the star always finds the frame.”
“Like the caption tells you what is happening, what is being referenced,” Meriweather wrote. “Y’all don’t know how to talk about art and that’s the problem.”
Converse isn’t the only brand that’s gone on a recent apology tour.
Besides Pepsi, Neutrogena acknowledged old allegations from late actress Hayden Panettiere; Target offered its mea culpa after releasing an offensive Halloween costume; and Callaway Golf CEO Chip Brewer repudiated an ad featuring a collab with Good Good Golf, in which Good Good’s cofounder Garrett Clark bodyslammed colleague Alexis Miestowski.
