Bella Hadid’s new Adidas campaign has been pulled after being called “sick” and an “egregious error”.
The US supermodel had been the face of the campaign for a relaunched shoe from the 1972 Munich Olympics.
At those Olympic games, Palestinian terrorists from the group Black September killed 11 Israeli athletes and a German police officer.
The criticism comes with Hadid – whose father is Palestinian – being a vocal critic of Israel and frequently speaking out against the Israel-Hamas War on social media.
She and her sister Gigi Hadid donated $1m to Palestinian relief efforts last month.
Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs heavily criticised Hadid’s appearance in the campaign on social media.
The American Jewish Committee called on Adidas to “address this egregious error” in a post on X.
It added: “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 SL 72 campaign, unveiled on Monday, revived the “classic” trainer that was first created for Adidas athletes at the Munich Olympics.
An ad that appeared across Adidas platforms and a Times Square billboard featured Hadid wearing the trainers while holding flowers.
“[T]o have her launch a shoe commemorating an Olympics when so much Jewish blood was shed is just sick,” said Sacha Roytman, the chief executive of the Combat Antisemitism Movement.
Anti-Defamation League chief executive Jonathan Greenblatt called Adidas’s decision a “serious misjudgment that dishonors the victims”.
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Adidas has now pulled adverts showing Hadid and said in a statement to Sky’s US partner network NBC News: “We are conscious that connections have been made to tragic historical events – though these are completely unintentional – and we apologise for any upset or distress caused.
“As a result we are revising the remainder of the campaign.”
Pictures of Hadid in the campaign have been removed from Adidas’s social media channels and website.
Sky News has contacted a representative for the model for comment.
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