Adidas is walking back its Bella Hadid campaign after backlash.
The company announced it will be “revising” its latest ad, which featured the model in a “coveted classic” sneaker from the ’70s to honor the 52nd anniversary of the Munich Olympics.
During the 1972 Summer Games, 11 Israeli athletes and one German police officer were killed by a Palestinian militant group.
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Adidas apologized for the “unintentional” reference to the terrorist attack in a statement Thursday.
“We are conscious that connections have been made to tragic historical events — though these are completely unintentional — and we apologize for any upset or distress caused,” the brand said.
“As a result we are revising the remainder of the campaign. We believe in sport as a unifying force around the world and will continue our efforts to champion diversity and equality in everything we do.”
Reps for Adidas and Hadid have yet to respond to Pvnew’s requests for comment.
The ad launched earlier Thursday, with photos showing the 27-year-old smiling as she held flowers and showed off her pink and red footwear.
Photos of Hadid, who has been a vocal supporter of the Palestinians amid the Israel-Hamas war, modeling the sneaker have been removed from Adidas’ social media platforms but remain on its website.
However, pictures of soccer player Jules Koundé, rapper A$AP Nast, musician Melissa Bon and model Sabrina Lan wearing the sneaker for the ad are still on Adidas’ social media.
The American Jewish Committee slammed the company Thursday for Hadid’s involvement in the shoot.
“For Adidas to pick a vocal anti-Israel model to recall this dark Olympics is either a massive oversight or intentionally inflammatory. Neither is acceptable,” the AJC said, calling Hadid’s participation an “egregious error.”
The campaign came two months after Hadid sported a vintage keffiyeh dress, inspired by the traditional Arab headdress, to the Cannes Film Festival and wrote via Instagram Stories, “Free Palestine forever.”
Hadid wore a similar ensemble at a pro-Palestinian march in New York City in 2021.
She is half-Palestinian, as her father, Mohamed Hadid, was born in Nazareth in 1948 — the same year that 750,000 Palestinians were displaced from their homes — and became a refugee in Syria.
