Adidas on Friday removed model Bella Hadid, whose father is Palestinian, from a controversial campaign for the reissue of iconic sneakers from the 1972 Munich Olympics, which were marred by an anti-Israeli attack.
The German equipment manufacturer, which is riding the wave of sneaker culture, is relaunching this retro-looking shoe this summer, called SL72, a replica of a model worn by athletes, particularly during the Munich Games.
The competition was marked by an attack followed by a hostage-taking carried out against the Israeli delegation by a Palestinian commando, during which eleven Israeli athletes and a German policeman were killed.
American model Bella Hadid, 27, is among the faces chosen by Adidas to embody the promotional campaign, launched in mid-July, for the reissued sneakers.
The daughter of a former Palestinian refugee who was born in Nazareth and became a real estate tycoon in the United States, Bella Hadid, whose mother is of Dutch origin, has regularly expressed her support for the Palestinians since Israel began bombing the Gaza Strip in retaliation for the October 7 attack by Hamas.
“We are aware that links have been made to tragic historical events – even if these are completely unintentional – and we apologize for any irritation or pain” that this may have caused, wrote the brand with the three stripes in a statement sent to AFP.
Model Bella Hadid has been removed from the campaign with “immediate effect,” an Adidas spokeswoman said.
Wave of criticism
The emotion was particularly marked among Israeli officials.
“Guess who is the face of the campaign? Bella Hadid, a model of Palestinian origin who has a history of spreading anti-Semitism and calling for violence against Israelis and Jews,” the Israeli embassy in Berlin reacted strongly on Thursday on the X network.
“How can Adidas now claim that the memory of this event was ‘completely involuntary’? The 1972 attack is etched in the common memory of Germans and Israelis,” Israeli Ambassador to Germany Ron Prosor told Welt TV on Friday, after Adidas apologized.
The campaign sparked a wave of criticism on social media: “Adidas is dead to me… I will not buy anything from companies that have anything in common with anti-Semites…” wrote one user on X.
Other Internet users, on the contrary, denounced on X Adidas’ decision to end the collaboration with the model “because they chose to believe the bold lies that Israel tells about her,” wrote one of them. Another called to “boycott” Adidas.
The brand will continue to promote its vintage model with other faces: Jules Koundé, French footballer, A$AP Nast, American rapper and songwriter, Melissa Bon, Swiss-Ethiopian musician, and Sabrina Lan, Chinese model and influencer who lives in Berlin.
Adidas was already forced to abruptly end its lucrative collaboration with controversial American rapper Kanye West, now known as Ye, in October 2022 after he made anti-Semitic remarks.
A divorce that cost dearly in terms of lost earnings, to the point of tipping the accounts for 2023 into the red.
The German group must absorb this new disappointment linked to Bella Hadid at a time when it is emerging from last year’s slump with significantly improved performances.
It published a press release on Tuesday reporting better-than-expected results for the second quarter, driven by its collection of colorful low-top sneakers, particularly the Samba and Gazelle models, while its American rival Nike is experiencing growth slowdown.