A casual stroll through a Twitter feed picked up on an antisemitic Tweet (that seemed to be automated) on @AdidasUK official page that read: “@GasAllJewss This is home. Welcome to the squad. Now it’s time to seal the deal – order your new home shirt here…#DareToCreate”. When immediate outrage ensued, Adidas pulled down the offensive tweet within several hours. The issue, however, is that this isn’t the first time it happened. A similar tweet appeared in February of this year that had the same exact message, except the “user” was “@InnocentHitler.”
Anyone with a basic understanding of digital marketing will realize what’s going on here. Clearly, these tweets are automated, and they appear to be generated as part of a ‘customize you own football jersey’ option on the Adidas UK website. When a customer doesn’t complete their order, a tweet is generated that reminds (coerces) them publicly to finish their order. A well-intended digital marketing strategy meant to ‘increase e-commerce sales conversions’ has been hijacked by antisemitic tolls.
The real issue here is that before the latest tweet was removed, it had garnered over 1,500 likes. Those are 1,500 haters affirming their hatred, and using the Adidas brand to do so. Adidas is spreading hate unwittingly. But now we’ve seen this occur multiple times. What will Adidas do to correct this problem? Hire humans? Fire the machine? Or play coy and ignore the issue until it resurfaces?
The ball is in their court!
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2 Responses
Non story. Some people hate Jews. We know. Not adidas fault, however they can and should fix it.
Maybe Adidas is a victim of spoofers or hackers. But the origins of Adidas go back to the Nazi-hosted Olympics of 1936. One of the founders of Adidas made the track shoes for many of the sprinters in those Olympics. The sprinters included Jesse Owens, the black American sprinter who spoiled Hitler’s yms chance to showcase the physical superiority of Aryans, and Marty Glickman, the Jewish American sprinter who was prohibited by the American coach from running in a relay so as not to further embarrass the Nazis.
I know nothing about Adidas’s current affiliations, if any, with Nazis/neoNazis.