By mid-July, the German shoemaking giant, Adidas (ETR: ADS), was noted for its exceptionally strong performance – both in terms of sales and in the stock market – as the company was riding high on successes, including with its popular ‘retro’ style sneakers.
By July 20, the situation had changed somewhat as Adidas became the target of Israeli criticism due to selecting the half-Palestinian American supermodel Bella Hadid to promote its new line of sneakers, released to coincide with the 1972 Munich Olympics.
Various Israeli voices – including the country’s official X account – were opposed to Hadid’s involvement both due to the model’s criticism of the country’s actions and due to the 1972 Munich Massacre, carried out by a Palestinian militant organization Black September.
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Adidas threatened with another backlash after folding to Israeli criticism
Though Adidas promptly dropped Hadid from the campaign and apologized, it may now be facing backlash over its reaction to the backlash.
Indeed, though the Munich Massacre was a particularly grim and bloody affair that saw the murder of 11 members of the Israeli Olympic team, it stands in stark contrast for several reasons to Israel’s activities in 2023, 2024, and, in many ways, in nearly every year since 1948.
Adidas folding and dropping Bella Hadid was particularly poorly received in Arab countries due to Israel being – according to a recent and controversial Lancet article – responsible for up to 186,000, and at least 35,000 Palestinian deaths in Gaza alone in the last 10 or so months, and is widely condemned over its illegal occupation of internationally-recognized Palestinian territory.
The move was also poorly received due to Hadid being an American-born American citizen and due to it standing in stark contrast to the apparent lack of condemnation of various Israeli officials – including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is scheduled to meet President Biden on July 23 – in many Western countries due to their many comments and actions, considered by multiple experts to demonstrate genocidal intent.
Adidas stock price chart
Either way, by the time of publication, the impact of the first and second backlash on the price of Adidas shares has been relatively tame. ADS shares lost their recent gains – achieved after the publishing of the latest guidance – and are down 0.91% in the last 5 days of trading.
On the other hand, ADS stock is 0.35% in the green in the initial hours of Monday trading and, with a price of €227.90 ($248.20), remains 25.07% in the green in the year-to-date (YTD) chart.
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