Adidas apologizes for featuring Bella Hadid in 1972 Munich Olympics shoe campaign

Adidas has apologized for featuring model Bella Hadid – who is half Palestinian – in a shoe campaign referencing the 1972 Munich Olympics, where 11 Israeli athletes and one German police officer were killed in an attack by Palestinian militants.

On July 18, the German shoe company faced backlash from the American Jewish Committee for choosing Hadid as the face of its new SL72 campaign, which celebrates the 52nd anniversary of the Munich Olympics with the revival of Adidas’ “coveted classic” sneaker.

“At the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, 12 Israelis were murdered and taken hostage by Palestinian terrorist group Black September,” the AJC wrote on X/Twitter on Thursday. “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. We call on Adidas to address this egregious error.”

On September 5, 1972, eight members of a Palestinian group called Black September infiltrated the Olympic Village in Munich, Germany, killing two members of the Israeli team and taking nine hostages. Nine Israeli hostages were killed, as well as five Palestinians and one German policeman.

The 27-year-old model, who is the daughter of Dutch model Yolanda Hadid and Palestinian real estate developer Mohamed Hadid, has been vocal about her support for Palestine amid the Israel-Hamas war.

In response to the backlash, Adidas issued a statement announcing that it will be “revising” its campaign with Hadid. “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,” Adidas said in a statement to USA Today on Thursday.

“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,” the company said.

The athletic brand’s campaign for the SL72 sneaker featured Hadid wearing a white T-shirt with the brand’s signature black stripes while holding up the newly-launched sneakers. Another photo showed the model holding flowers, as the X account for Adidas Originals wrote in the caption: “Giving Bella Hadid her flowers in the SL72.”

Hadid also took to Instagram last week to share photos of the Adidas billboard campaign displayed in Times Square, Manhattan. While her post remains on her Instagram account as of Friday, Adidas has deleted all photos featuring Hadid from its social media pages.

The campaign controversy comes weeks after the model paid homage to her Palestinian roots by wearing a red and white Keffiyeh dress to the Cannes Film Festival in May. The traditional garment has been central to Palestinian culture for centuries, becoming a prominent symbol of nationalism around the time of the creation of the state of Israel in the 1940s. The scarf has also been used as a symbol of pro-Palestine support throughout Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza.

Despite the backlash, the model has maintained that being vocal about her pro-Palestine beliefs is her priority over her modeling career. While appearing on the Rep podcast in August 2022, Hadid revealed that she has lost modeling opportunities because of her views. “I had so many companies stop working with me,” Hadid said. “I had friends that completely dropped me, like even friends that I had been having dinner with at their home on Friday nights for seven years, like now just won’t let me at their house any more.”

However, Hadid later said in an interview with GQ that she is unwilling to compromise her beliefs for her career.

“I realized that I’m not on this earth to be a model,” she explained. “I’m so lucky and blessed that I’m in a position where I can speak out the way that I do. And really, the downfall is what? That I lose my job?”

The Independent has contacted representatives for Adidas and Hadid for comment.