The spectacle of well-known brands getting ensnared in the unsavory porridge of wokery/ LGBTQ comms is becoming the order of the day.
As the comms sector saw the cooling off of the controversial run on the Bud Light-Mulvaney episode, no less than Adidas AG, the German brand which is a global sportswear phenomenon, picked up the next baton of controversy and kick-started a new leg in this unwholesome relay run.
When we say Adidas, we are not talking of a minnow. It is the largest sportswear manufacturer in Europe (by some accounts, the largest sportswear maker in the world). Adidas reported $708m in profits in 2022 and is the world’s 580th most valuable company by market cap.
It is here that the Adidas campaign that featured an unnamed male model wearing a ladies’ Rich Mnisi swimsuit (which targets the women’s market) promptly received a social media backlash as soon as it was published. The ad was not intended to take a dig at any type of person or social group but played on a cheezy line of a seemingly male portraying a female cloth item. Still, Adidas unexpectedly crossed a line. This enraged many women across the spectrum including prominent sportswomen who are against transgender persons playing in women’s sports.
Why would it be such a shock for Adidas? In fact, for Adidas, the timing couldn’t be worse. The boycottadidas trended previously in October 2022. This was during ‘the Kanye West controversy’. In October 2022, Adidas ended its partnership with rapper Kanye West and also ended production of West’s items under “Yeezy” due to West’s alleged antisemitic comments.
The Adidas-West collaboration was annually generating over US$1.2 billion in sales when Adidas decided to cut ties with West over the incident. Previously, in May 1922, Adidas faced another controversy. The UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) banned adverts by Adidas promoting its inclusive range of sports bras “on the basis of explicit nudity”.
Thus with the ‘man in a bikini’ promo, Adidas now finds itself in the wokery-cum-LGBTQ hot soup. The latest #boycottadidas centers around the campaign in which a male wearing a bikini is featured promoting ladies’ Rich Mnisi swimsuit. Interestingly the male wearing a women’s bikini has chest hair and bulging male anatomy which a female does not have-none which a bikini suit aimed at women should be showing.! The promo has enraged women across the spectrum. The 1327 #boycottadidas engagements on social media on 18th May jumped by 20-
fold within a day to more than 27300 (by 19th May).
An outspoken critic of transgender athletes in women’s sporting events, former NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines tweets:
“I don’t understand why companies are voluntarily doing this to themselves. They could have at least said the suit is “unisex”, but they didn’t because it’s about erasing women. Ever wondered why we hardly see this go the other way? Women’s swimsuits aren’t accessorized with a bulge”
The latest bikini controversy that Adidas finds itself in does not appear to be of the rule-breaking kind similar to sports bra ads that were scrutinized by UK’s ASA, nor does it appear to bring in a financial loss on par with the Kanye West-Adidas debacle. For now.
However, it is still too early to say how the women’s market would respond.
Will it readily forgive Adidas for extending wokery to seemingly ‘erase’ the women themselves or will the challenging outlook of the ads give Adidas a fourth chance?
