Fashion
Bella Hadid Responds to Backlash Over Adidas Ad Campaign
The supermodel said she was “shocked” and would not have participated in the ad if she had known its full context.
The supermodel Bella Hadid said on Monday that she was “shocked” by the “lack of sensitivity” that went into an Adidas ad campaign that she starred in, inspired by the 1972 Munich Olympic Games.
The sportswear brand’s ad was met with swift backlash from people online and pro-Israel groups when it came out this month. The campaign promoted the rerelease of a sneaker from 1972 called the “Originals SL 72” that debuted during that year’s Olympic Games, when 11 Israeli athletes were taken hostage by Palestinian militants during the event and later killed. Ms. Hadid, who modeled the sneaker in the ad, is of Palestinian descent and became a focal point of the scrutiny.
Adidas apologized in a statement on July 19, saying that it had made an “unintentional mistake,” and pulled the ad.
Ms. Hadid issued her own apology in an Instagram story on Monday evening. “I would never knowingly engage with any art or work that is linked to a horrific tragedy of any kind,” she wrote. “In advance of the campaign’s release, I had no knowledge of the historical connection to the atrocious events in 1972.”
What happened with the ad?
In mid-July, Adidas reintroduced its running sneaker, which originally debuted at the Munich Olympics in 1972. To promote the shoe, the brand rolled out a global ad campaign featuring a range of pop culture figures, including the soccer player Jules Koundé, the hip-hop artist ASAP Nast and Ms. Hadid.
In an emailed statement shared with The New York Times, Adidas said that the campaign was intended to celebrate its lightweight running shoe, which was designed more than 50 years ago.
