Back in 1972, during the Munich Olympics, a horrible tragedy occurred. Olympic village was invaded by Palestinian terrorists who killed 11 Olympians and their coaches.
Jump to present day, and Adidas decided to honor the 1972 Munich Olympics by advertising a retro shoe, the SL72 which was originally introduced in 1972. Not only that, but they hired Bella Hadid to be the face of the ad campaign. Hadid is a Palestinian and very pro-Palestine in her social media posts. These decisions have caused a lot of backlash.
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First, Adidas and Hadid are being attacked for being so insensitive and bringing up devastating events that occurred at the Munich Olympics. Especially by hiring a Palestinian to be the face of the ad campaign, it appears to many that they are pushing a pro-Palestine anit-semitic agenda.
TMZ reports that Adidas has since apologized claiming they didn’t mean to make a political statement and that they are going to revise their ad campaign. Adidas has yet to make it clear if they are going to remove Hadid from the ad campaign.
For her part, Hadid blames Adidas for putting her at the center of this mess. She claims that she didn’t know about the events that happened in Munich and believes it is Adidas’ fault for putting her in the center of this controversy.
Hadid is actually talking to lawyers about potentially suing Adidas for putting her into a situation she didn’t know she would be part of and doesn’t want to be part of.
While Hadid and Adidas may both claim they didn’t know what happened at the Munich Olympics and they didn’t know the shoe promotion would end up being connected to horrific events, these claims aren’t holding up with critics.
TMZ’s Harvey Levin went as far as to say, “You should know.” He pointed out that Hadid has a whole team of lawyers, publicists and agents that should have informed her of the controversial nature of the ad campaign before allowing her to sign the contract. Levin 100% believes Hadid has no excuse for claiming she didn’t know.
While Levin may not think Adidas is responsible for Hadid’s decision, Adidas seems slightly concerned about a lawsuit because they issued a statement in which they apologized to Hadid and other people involved in the ad campgain.
This statement reads, “Connections continue to be made to the terrible tragedy that occurred at the Munich Olympics due to our recent SL72 campaign. These connections are not meant and we apologize for any upset or distress caused.”
In the statement, Adidas calls the ad campaign “an unintentional mistake.” The company also shares, “We also apologize to our partners Bella Hadid, A$AP Nast, Jules Kounde, and others, for any negative impact on them.” Adidas added that they “are revising the campaign.”
Levin “isn’t buying” Adidas’ claim that they didn’t know about the tragedy in Munich or that their ad campaign would be connected to it. He finds it impossible to think that nobody at Adidas knew about the tragic events and that nobody connected to Hadid knew about it either. He believes Adidas picked Hadid for the campaign because “they knew what they were doing, and if Bella didn’t, it’s on her.”
