Adidas' Olympics retro campaign steps into controversy

Source: © Proper Proper

Adidas' SL72 trainers featured in its retro series has led to controversy for the brand

The ad campaign includes the promotion of the Adidas SL 72 trainer, which was launched at the infamous 1972 Munich Games, remembered for the attack on Israeli athletes in the Olympic Village by the Palestinian Black September group.

The Israeli Olympic athletes were held hostage while the Group demanded the release of Palestinians held in Israeli and German prisons. The event ended tragically when in a gun battle with the German police, the Palestinian militants killed 11 Israeli athletes and one German policeman.

This, combined with the choice of model for the campaign, unleashed a storm on the shoe manufacturer.

Adding fuel to the fire, the campaign also features supermodel Bella Hadid, who is half-Palestinian and a vocal supporter of Palestine.

The 27-year-old model has been an Adidas brand ambassador for some time and was one of several celebrities promoting a relaunch of the Adidas SL 72 shoe including French footballer Jules Koundé, US rapper A$AP Nast and Chinese model Sabrina Lan.

In May, Hadid posted on Instagram that she was “…devastated at the loss of the Palestinian people and the lack of empathy coming from the government systems worldwide".

Recently, in support of Palestinian relief effects she and her sister, Gigi, donated $1m. Adidas recently relaunched the SL72 shoes as part of a series reviving classic trainers.

The controversy

This was quickly picked up by Israel, which showed the model wearing the shoes on its official X page, with the comment, "Guess who the face of their campaign is? Bella Hadid, a half-Palestinian model.”

The American Jewish Committee also became involved, calling Hadid, a "vocal anti-Israel model” and calling on Adidas to “recall this dark Olympics is either a massive oversight or intentionally inflammatory" in X adding that, "Neither is acceptable.”

The group did not provide evidence or detail for its allegation that Hadid was "anti-Israel”, only saying that “criticism of Adidas making Hadid one of the faces of this campaign has nothing to do with her ethnicity but her history of anti-Israel and antisemitic comments”.

The CEO of the Anti-Defamation League Jonathan Greenblatt then also weighed in on the matter saying in a post that Hadid’s involvement in the campaign is a “serious misjudgement that dishonours the victims” of the 1972 terrorist attack.

Following this line of criticism against Adidas and Hadid, journalist Mehdi Hasan posted on X, “Bella Hadid has absolutely nothing in common with the 1972 terrorists – other than the fact that she is Palestinian. Blaming people for the crimes of others who share their race or ethnicity is pure racism & bigotry.”

Jonathan, this is straight-up anti-Palestinian racism & bigotry. Bella Hadid has absolutely nothing in common with the 1972 terrorists - other than the fact that she is Palestinian! Blaming people for the crimes of others who share their race or ethnicity is pure racism & bigotry https://t.co/A1krCcsSXB

— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) July 19, 2024

Adidas drops Hadid

Since then Adidas has dropped the supermodel from the campaign.

This was confirmed by the shoe brand in a statement to ATP saying it would be "revising the remainder of the campaign" with immediate effect.

"We are conscious that connections have been made to tragic historical events -- though these are completely unintentional -- and we apologise for any upset or distress caused,” states the brand.

Adidas told the Financial Times it was “revising the remainder of the campaign” without disclosing details about its changes.

Campaign images showing the other Adidas brand ambassadors are still online.

Other social media users have defended Hadid and called for a boycott of Adidas following the move to pull the campaign.

So far Hadid has remained silent.

More recently the Times of Israel states that Hadid has retained lawyers following Adidas’ dropping of her.

It says, “Unnamed sources told TMZ Saturday that Hadid is looking to take action for what the site called Adidas’s “lack of public accountability”.

This has not been confirmed in any other media to date.