Hey all,
I wanted to ask if any of you know if there have been any updates regarding the Vans x Cult “Diamondback” shoe ad that featured an emaciated ball python. As most of you remember, the ad sparked a lot of well-deserved backlash from the reptile community for using an animal in terrible condition as a prop.
The ad was pulled shortly after the outrage began, but as far as I can tell, Vans hasn’t made any kind of public apology or statement acknowledging the mistake. Along with other breeders and reptile experts, I believe a $10,000 donation to USARK would be an appropriate gesture of accountability and a step toward repairing trust with the reptile-keeping community. Has anything like that actually happened?
Has anyone seen a statement from Vans or the production company? Any confirmed actions taken to address what happened, or was it just quietly swept under the rug? If there hasn’t been any kind of public apology I believe that we shouldn’t let it be swept under the rug even though it has been a year!
Would appreciate any updates, links, or insights if anyone has them.
Thanks in advance.
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It hasn’t quite been a year.
I honestly haven’t seen any updates aside from the brief update given after the images were removed. Mostly about the photoshoot being I think one Van’s photographer and the advertisement agency’s project and not of the overall company. But it still left the fact that many other employees had to have looked over those photos prior to release and no one stopped to say anything. It would have been nice to consult a professional for recommendations for animal handling and such…
I vaguely remember something being said about looking into the animal’s well being. But nothing more aside from that.
I heard somewhere that the sneakers were taken off market and slashed before disposal, but I don’t know how true this is or after how many sales it could have happened.
The downside of this is that most of it is a product of a negative outlook on snakes by many people and their sheer ignorance. Unfortunately there are MANY people who don’t understand that the snake pictured was emaciated. There were many comments from people saying negative things to do to the snake or using it for another pair of shoes (which were not made of actual snakeskin at all). Until of course someone who DOES understand snakes sounded the alarm on this image and reptile hobbyists flocked to the posts.
Hopefully other brands were watching and if they try to do a release of a product they learned to look into things more carefully. It does suck that on the public side as usual it seems things just were swept under the rug.
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Honestly, the first thing I thought was it’s dead.
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Dead. Partly frozen/part freeze dried and forced into this pose.
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Like I thought… I really don’t know if there is anything else we can do but yeah it would be really hard to unsweep it from under the rug. Though I do wish that would do something more then they have done already!
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There was actually a short clip of it moving on the shoe when the ad was up. Which was the only way most people knew it was still alive during photog.
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Someone on Reddit contacted CultCrew and they emailed them back an apology that wasn’t really an apology. Said they were the ones who produced and released the content, the snakes used in the ads belonged to an employee, and they dared insist they were “well taken care of, fed and hydrated” which anyone with eyes and a knowledge of what a healthy BP looks like, knows doesn’t add up. As far as I know, that’s as much as was ever found out. NERD did a couple of videos on the situation when it happened, but I don’t think there was ever any update about the snake itself.
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Yeah, NERD also got an apology from them but the add wasn’t to NERD so the apology shouldn’t be to NERD but to the public. Sadly it probably never will happen.
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