Stranger Things star Millie Bobby Brown received a lot of flak in 2018 for leading an advertisement that, according to some complainants on YouTube, showed unsafe behavior and it immediately caught the attention of media outlets.
Brown became a household name and a teen icon after her breakthrough performance in the aforementioned Netflix series which meant that she had all the more responsibility to make sure she steered clear of any such instances.
The advertisement in question had her travel in a moving car wearing Converse sneakers, but that wasn’t what got her into trouble. She kept her foot on the dashboard of the car while it was in motion and that acted as a trigger.
The controversy got so much out of hand that the Advertising Standards Authority had to step in to resolve the pressing issue. After analyzing thoroughly, the ASA concluded that the advertisement was, in fact, a ‘Nontroversy.’
Millie Bobby Brown’s Controversial Converse Advertisement
Converse is a brand that needs no introduction, and the same goes for Millie Bobby Brown. Instead of having the desired impact combining the two, the commercial did the opposite.
Brown talked about attending an award show wearing the Converse sneakers and she pressed that a fellow actor poked fun at her for not wearing feminine footwear.
She said in the Converse commercial –
“This girl that was from a show, she came up to me and was like, ‘Oh, you’re wearing sneakers to an Award show?’ I was like, ‘Yep, that’s right.’ And then, I told her like, ‘I’m not expecting you to wear a tutu and a bow.’ It’s not illegal to wear Converse to an Award show. You can’t tell me how to be a girl.”
The driver of the vehicle remained off camera and she pointed out to Millie Bobby Brown that females are expected to behave in a stereotypical way.
Advertising Standards Authority Resolved The Matter
On November 7 of the same year, the ASA released a statement on their official website after closely observing the issue. They evaluated the setting of the commercial and ruled that it did not have the strength to create a controversy.
Advertising Standard Authority’s official website said –
“We noted the ad depicted a teenager sitting in the front passenger seat of a moving car while telling her story to the driver, who was out of shot. We considered that was a common and recognizable setting that many viewers, including children, would be familiar with. We considered viewers were therefore likely to pay little attention to the way she was sitting. For that reason, we concluded the ad did not condone or encourage an unsafe practice.”
Netflix, on their official fan convention website – Tudum, revealed the title of the first episode of season 5 of Stranger Things which said, “The Crawl.” The release date is unknown.
Stranger Things can be streamed on Netflix.
Source: YouTube, Advertising Standards Authority
