Leafing through the Sunday New York Times, I was startled to see a stylized ad for lynching. I had to look thrice to figure out that perhaps it was supposed to be just a coat on a carabiner-style hook. But images of lynchings were commonly promoted via postcards, both advertising and promoting the terrorism at lynching’s heart. My guess is that the similarity between this ad and lynching imagery is unintentional (see below). Its racism is still, at least to my eyes, offensively clueless.
I called the number on the advertisement, 516-743-3230, to voice my objections and concerns. I spoke with a kindly-sounding person named Edgar, who said that he had never seen the image that way, but could see my point, and that he’d forward my concern to “editorial” who might reconsider the imagery in future season’s advertising. He said the hook is just their patented look.
I explained that when they advertise a shoe on a hook, as they do on their website, I see no problem, but when they advertise what looks like the husk of a lynched body dangling on a hook, it sends a very different message.
I asked which ad agency created the ad, and he said they created it in-house. I asked his last name, and Edgar declined to provide it. I asked to speak to someone in the editorial department, and he said he would forward my concern, but not connect me.
There’s a long history of racist and sexist advertising. On the history of racist imagery, see the incomparable late great filmmaker Marlon Riggs’ deconstruction of these tropes in his diptych, Ethnic Notions and Color Adjustment (available for free via Kanopy through many public libraries).
There is also a long association between misogynist advertising and meat-hooks. (For an analysis of the effects of misogynist advertising, see, for example, Killing Us Softly 4, also available via Kanopy.)
There’s an equally long history of protests against the toxic cumulative effect of racist and sexist imagery.
With regards to protesting racist imagery in fashion, for example, there are two recent successful protests that I’m aware of. The clothing line formerly known as “Noose and Monkey” received many online protests, and as a result changed their name to Twisted Tailor.
In 2019, when Burberry designed a hoodie with a built-in noose, model Liz Kennedy, who worked the London fashion show where the hoodie was first shown, raised objections, especially because of the history of suicide in her own family. She added, “… Let’s not forget about the horrifying history of lynching either.” Her concerns were dismissed at first, but after Kennedy posted to social media protesting, Burberry apologized and pulled the item.
Edgar at Herno said no one had ever protested the image before. I told him I doubted I would be the last. I hope, if more people protest, Herno will follow the lead of people like Kennedy and companies like Burberry, remove the ad, and promote more positive social justice messages instead.