Former CMO Rodney Rambo Had Nothing To Do With Converse’s Controversial Ad. He Still Got Death Threats.

The threats started pouring into former Converse CMO Rodney Rambo’s phone on a Friday morning. He had departed the company in January, and had nothing to do with the widely-condemned ad that featured Kpop star Karina in a white skirt, holding a pair of new Chuck 70 X sneakers, and lit in a way that recalled Ku Klux Klan imagery for some social media users. But he had seen it the night before, the day it went viral on social media. “You should be disgusted that this ad was ever approved,” one user wrote to Rambo on LinkedIn, in one of multiple comments seen by ADWEEK. “It is unconscionable how such a tasteless ad was cleared under your oversight. Is this what pays the bills?” another user asked. “You need a fade or something?” someone on Instagram commented under Rambo’s vacation post. There are hundreds more posts invoking Rambo’s name and image across Instagram, X, TikTok, Threads, and LinkedIn. Some of the most chilling messages, Rambo recalled, said that since the ads evoked a lynching, people should lynch him. Rambo, who is Black, deleted those messages immediately. At first, he tried not to focus on the threats directed at him, though he worried it would affect his future employment opportunities. Currently, he does executive coaching and fractional CMO work. But it became personal once they targeted his family and posted pictures of his extended family. He and his family were being doxxed for something he didn’t even do. His son, Rambo said, had received messages about why his dad was being canceled. “It was definitely jarring,” Rambo told ADWEEK. “In the world we live in, you can no longer say ‘Oh that won’t happen to me.’” Anger everywhere By Saturday, Rambo stopped looking at notifications, many of which connected him to “KKKonverse.” As the focal point of an incredibly divisive issue, he soon found himself in the crosshairs of people on both sides. There were those who lashed out because they believed the ad was a racist dog whistle, and those who said it was a gross overreaction. Some posts seen by ADWEEK, which contained racist slurs, claimed that because Rambo is Black, the ad cannot be racist. “I was hoping that people would see quickly that I wasn't a part of it, but that didn't seem to really happen,” Rambo said. He considered making his social media profiles private, but some of his peers advised him not to do that, since people could find more invasive ways to message him, he said. Instead, he tried to delete as many of the comments and direct messages as he could, and blocked the senders. Rambo got no institutional help. Converse has not stated he wasn’t involved, and its only public statement simply acknowledged it “got this wrong,” and understood how the image could be “deeply upsetting.” Converse did not respond to ADWEEK's request for comment. AI answer engines also exacerbated the issue. For nearly a week, AI answers from X’s Grok and Google both listed Rambo as the brand’s CMO. Numerous social media commenters cited these answer engines in videos about Rambo. He tried to “educate” Grok on who the current CMO is. As of publication, Google AI Overviews says it’s Nicole Graham, who is actually the CMO for Nike, Converse's parent company. In fact, Blake Harrop is Converse CMO. Harrop did not respond to ADWEEK’s request for comment. X did not respond to a request for comment. Google did not reply with a comment by press time. While large corporations didn’t help Rambo mitigate the outrage, his peers did. “I had a lot of people, thankfully, that were in my network that started almost what I would call a reverse campaign,” he said. One ally was Geoff Cottrill, Converse CMO from 2007 to 2016. He began a campaign on LinkedIn, commenting under critical posts that Rambo was the “former” CMO. “He had NOTHING to do with what happened. He wasn’t involved in any way whatsoever,” he wrote on LinkedIn. “Rambo is a great human and he would never have let something like this happen during his watch as the Converse CMO.” Cottrill declined to comment further. An unexpected apology The attacks on Rambo’s character hit him the hardest. He tried to build up communities at Converse, and accusations that he was affiliated with racist organizations still weigh heavy on him, he said.“The accusations absolutely go against everything that I am and everything I've worked to accomplish,” Rambo said. But his recent ordeal has not dimmed his faith in the goodness of people. A week after the initial onslaught of comments, Rambo pointed to one bright moment. Julia Wiltshire, the founder of Ignite B2B Growth, had initially called out Rambo and the Converse team for the ad. But when she realized her mistake, she edited her post and apologized publicly to Rambo, admitting she made a “rush to judgment.”She also called him to apologize as well, which Rambo said humbled him. Wiltshire was unavailable for comment. “We're not in a day and age where people apologize for making a mistake,” he said. “And I really loved it. Regardless of the fact that it may have inspired a lot of unwanted attention for myself, she didn't have to come back and write an apology, but yet she did. And what a great example of understanding your mistake and moving forward.”

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Former CMO Rodney Rambo Had Nothing To Do With Converse’s Controversial Ad. He Still Got Death Threats.

Doxxed and mislabeled by AI answer engines, Rambo found help from the people in his network

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Christopher Cicchiello

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