Sportswear giant Adidas on Friday announced that it was dropping pro-Palestinian supermodel Bella Hadid from an ad campaign for re-launched retro sneakers commemorating the 1972 Olympics in Munich, that saw several Israeli athletes massacred by a Palestinian group.
The decision came in the wake of a controversy after Adidas relaunched the SL72, a shoe first showcased by athletes at the 1972 Munich Games.
Despite initially picking Hadid—a US-born model with Palestinian roots and a vocal supporter of Palestinian rights—Adidas took a U-turn after pro-Israeli groups took issue with the American model sporting the retro sneakers.
The Israeli embassy in Germany even called out Adidas on social media, saying, "Guess who the face of the campaign is? Bella Hadid, a model with Palestinian roots who has spread anti-Semitism in the past and incited violence against Israelis and Jews."
Having dropped Hadid, the sportswear giant said it would revise 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," AFP quoted Adidas as saying on Friday.
In the 1972 Munich Games, eleven Israeli athletes and a German police officer were killed after gunmen from the Palestinian Black September group broke into the Olympic village and took them hostage.
Since the Hamas attacks of October 7, Hadid has taken part in multiple pro-Palestine demonstrations, and has also decribed Israel's offensive as "genocide".
Published 20 July 2024, 16:28 IST