German sports giant Adidas has been forced to apologise for featuring model Bella Hadid in a campaign for the brand’s SL72 shoe. Hadid, who is half-Palestinian, has for a long time been an outspoken supporter of the Palestinian cause, so the connection (intentional or otherwise) between the shoe and the 1972 Munich Olympics, where 11 Israelis were taken hostage and killed by Palestinian terrorists, is the sticking point.
Jewish communities were offended by the ad – one of a whole series in the campaign – and Adidas has apologised. Fair enough, it’s a delicate situation and de-escalation has to be the priority. But have they apologised to Hadid for putting her in this predicament? There may not be too much sympathy for a successful, beautiful, wealthy woman, but she’s cast as the villain here and is no doubt getting a lot of hate at the moment for just doing her job.
Like Kardashian Kendall Jenner, who came under fire for trivialising Black Lives Matter in a 2017 Pepsi commercial, Hadid will most likely weather the storm. And so will Adidas, which is enjoying a boom in sales and popularity. The brand is seemingly unaffected by the fallout from its partnership with Kanye West who made a series of shockingly anti-Semitic remarks a couple of years ago, leaving the German brand with unsold stock worth £1bn.
Adidas has “revised” the SL72 campaign and apologised with the statement: “We are conscious that connections have been made to tragic historical events – though these are completely unintentional – and apologise for any upset or distress caused. As a result, we are revising the remainder of the campaign. We believe in sport as a unifying force around the world and will continue our efforts to champion diversity and equality in everything we do.”
Marks & Spencer and Mother London will be feeling some sympathy about the difficulties for advertisers of keeping the peace. The retailer was forced to apologise after a Christmas social media post that was targeted by extremist groups. They protested that the discarded cracker hats in the traditional festive colours of red, green and white (also the colours of the Palestine flag) seen burning in the fireplace were an intentional anti-Palestine message.
UPDATE: Adidas has apologised to Hadid et al: “We made an unintentional mistake. We also apologise to our partners, Bella Hadid, ASAP Nast, Jules Koundé and others for any negative impact on them.”
Unintentional, my arse