Adidas #SupportisEverything Campaign – A Success or a Missed Opportunity?

On the 9th of February, Adidas launched their #SupportIsEverything campaign. 

They tweeted the following message:

Adidas later responded with their intention behind the tweet:

Adidas sent a strong message of body positivity with a move that went against social media guidelines. Nudity has long been challenged on social media with some images being deleted under brand guidelines, and others remaining. 

For example, Gina Martin, a feminist activist known for banning up skirting in Britain in 2019 worked with model Nyome Nicholas-Williams to campaign against Instagram’s nudity policy after the platform deleted nude images of Nicholas-Williams from the site while retaining similar images of white women. 

The campaign champions body positivity in order to promote a new, inclusive sports bra range. 

Has the campaign however, been a success?

The Marketing:

There has been an overwhelmingly positive response from the marketing world.

For example, Inii Kim, the co-founder and chief creative officer of King & Partners, a New York advertising firm, stated the campaign was “powerful, thought-provoking and iconic—what advertising should be.” 

Wall Street Journal published an article on the 9th a few hours after the tweet, written by Rory Satran that explains how the modern lingerie and underwear market has evolved.

She explains that the market once relied on heavily sexualized and edited content exemplified by Victoria Secret campaigns.  

More recently however there has been a change, generated from female led brands that aim to be inclusive and show more realistic female forms.

The Adidas campaign therefore exploits this change in the market to produce a marketing campaign that is fresh and appeals to the new wave of body positivity coursing through women’s clothing. 

Therefore, the marketing in the campaign is innovative, intelligent and representative. 

On the other hand, there does however seem to be a disconnect between the #SupportIsEverything message and execution.

The Products:

Upon closer inspection, looking at replies to the tweet, there appears to be an issue with the campaign.

The inclusivity and togetherness values endorsed by the marketing appear to fall flat.

Take for example some of these replies to the tweet: 

These replies point out that the sports bras supplied for the campaign are not inclusive in their sizing.  

There are many other replies that suggest the same idea.

Adidas’ campaign relies heavily on body positivity and inclusivity so when their products don’t appear to match this sentiment, questions about the validity of the marketing are bound to follow.

What does this all mean?

Adidas have no doubt come up with a provocative marketing campaign which has attracted discussion and attention across social media.

It would seem their actual products fall short when it comes to delivering

It’s possible this will end up being a missed opportunity to take advantage of an exceptional marketing campaign. It will be interesting to see how or if Adidas responds to the criticism. 

Has the #SupportIsEverything campaign lost its authenticity?