Bella Hadid sues adidas over controversial adidas campaign

As we told you last week, adidas released the new campaign for the SL 72 OG silhouette, initially designed for the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, Germany. The face of the campaign was Bella Hadid, the Palestinian-American model, who has openly taken a stand for the Palestinian people against the Israeli blockade. So Jewish and pro-Israeli Twitter – Jwitter, as it is commonly known – was ablaze with this campaign. But why?

It all goes back to the fact that during the 1972 Olympics, eight members of the Palestinian militant organisation Black September infiltrated the Olympic Village, killed two members of the Israeli Olympic team and took nine others hostage. Those nine were later killed. It has since become known as the Munich massacre. The Israeli community saw the choice of Bella Hadid as a statement of intent by adidas.

However, adidas was quick to apologise and delete the campaign from all its platforms: ‘We are aware that connections have been made to tragic historical events – albeit entirely unintentional – and we apologise for any upset or distress caused. We believe in sport as a unifying force around the world and will continue to strive to champion diversity and equality in everything we do.’

Bella Hadid also removed the campaign from her social media and has decided to take legal action against adidas. While the sports brand publicly apologised for the campaign, close sources say they did not communicate with the other affected party, Bella Hadid. The model is suing the label for its lack of public accountability. The supermodel has felt abandoned by the brand, and is still under contract with them despite the situation.