Ridiculous Isn’t the Word For It

Shameful is a better fit
The first line in the FootwearNews article about Adidas campaign around women and running is: “Adidas is shining a light on women’s safety”. Bull-fucking-shit.

Adidas found out in a survey (like one was needed) that over 50% of women have lost interest in running because they are afraid (of getting raped or murdered). I mean the article didn’t say ‘raped or murdered’, but we know that’s ultimately what women are worried about. Adidas is worried about loosing their running customers.

So what do they do? A commercial that shows and tells women what they already know—and I mean all women, not just runners. We’re not stupid or unaware, even if we are not runners (me) we are painfully and keenly aware of the problem. Same with the research…this is not groundbreaking in any way. It doesn’t shed new light on the situation and if the outcome is anything to measure it by, didn’t highlight any real solutions.

Somewhere down in the article they go on to say, “Adidas is focusing its efforts on the education of men and boys to create allies for change.” Really? I didn’t see anything in the ad about that. Why not?

What if they did an ad that held men up to a ‘higher’ standard…or what is actually a really low fucking bar: Don’t attack women. Yes, they have a program where they’ve worked with 250 running coaches to train them to train their male runners not to abuse or assault women runners (or is it all women?). AND, big news here, they’ve got over 120,000 signatures through the app on this pledge, “I pledge to never commit, condone, or remain silent about violence against women”. Ahhhhh, that’s adorable. Especially when, according to the Criminal Victimization study , it is estimated that 734,630 people were raped (including threatened, attempted, or completed rape) in the U.S. in 2018. And if only 25% of rapes and sexual assaults were reported in 2018 (same study)…..yeah, that’s a big fucking number.

Nothing about this is good enough, in fact it is no where even close, for companies and their agencies to be this misogynistically passive about issues like this. It is time for corporations, their boards, their shareholders, their agencies to do better, to do more. Stop pussy footing around the issue and do something bold and effective—you never know, you might start a real trend.