Adidas boycott called for after company drops Bella Hadid

The German sportswear company Adidas is facing calls for a boycott after it dropped Palestinian American model Bella Hadid from an advertising campaign, apparently in response to pressure from pro-Israel groups and institutions. According to the Britain’s Daily Mail, Hadid has instructed lawyers to take legal action against the company.

Speaking to Anadolu news agency, political analyst Sami Hamdi pointed out the impact of the boycott on companies believed to support Israel, which continues its attacks against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

“McDonald’s, Starbucks, KFC and other brands have already begun to suffer the effects of boycott movements in Muslim-majority countries,” explained Hamdi. “Many of these brands were forced to close a number of their branches. Now calls to boycott Adidas have already been heard.”

According to the director of the Centre for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA), Palestinian activist Sami Al-Erian, Adidas is guilty of targeting celebrities and figures who support the Palestinian struggle. “I think it is possible that a boycott campaign will be launched against Adidas products,” he said.

Global sportswear brand Adidas has apologized to its partners, including Palestinian-American supermodel Bella Hadid, after she threatened legal action over an ad campaign inspired by the 1972 Munich Olympics ( Elif Acar – Anadolu Agency )

Al-Erian pointed out that the behaviour of Adidas and other multinational companies in targeting Palestine and celebrities supporting the boycott were bound to spark reactions in the Arab and Islamic world. “The position taken by many celebrities is a principled position against an ideology that aims for one racial group to control another group.”

He noted that removing Hadid from the advertising campaign would mean yielding to Israeli pressure to prevent celebrities from defending the Palestinian cause. “Bella Hadid is frank [when speaking] about Palestine. Adidas should have known this.”

The company is one of the largest global sportswear brands, employing 59,000 people around the world. It had sales worth €21.4 billion last year.

Adidas had dropped Hadid from an advertising campaign in which she modelled retro sports shoes from the1972 Munich Olympic Games. The move was made following a post on the official State of Israel X account in which the apartheid state accused Hadid of anti-Semitism and making calls for violence. It was at the Munich Olympics that eleven Israeli athletes were killed by Palestinians from the Black September group.

Adidas apologised for what it described as “any upset or distress” caused by the campaign. “We are conscious that connections have been made to tragic historical events, but this was completely unintentional,” said the brand, which noted that it is “revising the remainder of the campaign.”

READ: Adidas apologises to Bella Hadid over Olympic campaign controversy