Last week, Ye openly gloated that Adidas can't end its sponsorship of him in the wake of his antisemitic remarks: "I can say antismitic things, and Adidas can't drop me. Now what? Now what?". This weekend, Nazis marched in support of him in Los Angeles. This week, the German apparel giant faces a boycott in the face of its near-total silence on the matter.
On Thursday, the Anti-Defamation League urged the company to break ties with West. "In light of Kanye West's increasingly strident antisemitic remarks over the past few weeks, we were disturbed to learn that Adidas plans to continue to release new products from his Yeezy brand without any seeming acknowledgment of the controversy surrounding his most recent remarks," they wrote in a statement. They continued, "We urge Adidas to reconsider supporting the Ye product line and to issue a statement making clear that the Adidas company and community has no tolerance whatsoever for antisemitism."
A few major outlets have been running Yeezy sponcon/PR since this kicked off. Madness! If your byline is under that, get it taken off.
"But Adidas can't say or do anything because of contracts" is not the right answer. The pain Adidas suffers from doing something cannot be greater than the pain others suffer from it doing nothing. This is because Adidas cannot refer its legal pain to others, but others can refer pain to Adidas in ways its lawyers aren't paid to see coming.
