The Courage of Adidas’ Sarah Camhi
The day before Adidas finally ended its partnership with Ye, Sarah Camhi did something very brave: A director of trade marketing with Adidas, she posted to LinkedIn, admonishing her employer for failing “to denounce hate speech, the perpetuation of dangerous stereotypes and blatant racism by one of our top brand partners.”
“As a member of the Jewish community,” she wrote, “I can no longer stay silent on behalf of the brand that employs me. Not saying anything, is saying everything.”
“Not saying anything,” unfortunately, is exactly what Adidas did for some two weeks after Ye’s latest antisemitic outburst.
As a marketer myself, I can tell you that being quiet for that long in the face of such heinous rhetoric from one of your own partners is just plain irresponsible. Company executives may have been busy sweating the hundreds of millions of dollars they could lose by cutting ties, but it was clear to just about everyone except Adidas’ own executives that one of the world’s biggest brands couldn’t continue a relationship with a proud and loud antisemite. Had Adidas moved quickly, the company could have affirmed their brand values, which include, by the way, being an “inclusive” leader in their industry.
Instead, the company suffered immense reputational harm — not to mention a crashing stock price — because leadership took their time addressing Ye’s hate speech. Their inaction extended to internal communications, too; Camhi, in her post, blasted Adidas as being quiet in relation to its employees. Again, as a marketer, this is deeply disconcerting — internal comms matter, now more than ever, especially at times of distress and danger. How exactly were Adidas’ Jewish employees supposed to feel safe and accepted at work when their company stayed mum on a critical issue for so long?
In the end, the company reached the inevitable destination — a break with Ye — but the slow pace wrecked relationships with audiences and employees. It didn’t have to be this way.
The Risks of Jewish Advocacy
I can only imagine how often Camhi second-guessed herself before posting that message. Antisemitic incidents reached a record high last year, according to the Anti-Defamation League, but Jewish professionals who speak out about antisemitism on public platforms face risks on multiple fronts — antisemites could flood their DMs with hate and threats. Those at odds with their employers’ stances could face retribution and career consequences for speaking out. And, of course, they risk criticism from those who would argue, crime stats notwithstanding, antisemitism just doesn’t rise to the level of other forms of discrimination and therefore aren’t worth addressing.
That last one is familiar to many Jewish professionals, including me. Marketers and comms professionals are supposed to be confident communicators, never shy about promoting important messages and compelling stories. But that confidence can falter when we’re continuously confronted with both subtle and not-so-subtle cues that the hate aimed at us isn’t worthy of discussion. This can and does happen in workplaces. Take, for instance, DE&I programming: Some companies, according to an article from the Society for Human Resource Management, have pointedly excluded discussions of antisemitism and Jewish people.
“We’re seeing this increasingly, and it is particularly problematic for those of us who are committed to civil rights for everyone,” Kenneth L. Marcus, the founder of the Louis D. Brandeis Center, told SHRM.
The silence often surrounding antisemitism is so deafening that comedian David Baddiel wrote (a very serious) book about it aptly titled, “Jews Don’t Count.” Antisemitism, he writes, can manifest itself in “absences.” It’s about absences of “a concern, a protectiveness, a championing, a cry for increased visibility, whatever it might be — not being applied to Jews.”
This week, Sarah Camhi voiced that cry for increased visibility and protectiveness and, thank goodness, she has found plenty of allies. But it shouldn’t take heinous rhetoric from a celebrity for allies to raise their voices. And those of us who are Jewish — marketers and other industry professionals alike — shouldn’t have to second-guess ourselves on whether it’s worthwhile to speak out on public platforms and demand that individuals and companies, including our own employers, do more. Last but not least, companies who find themselves in bed with antisemites need to start cutting ties, immediately, whether their own employees call them out or not.
It’s up to everyone to acknowledge that antisemitism is real and potent. That it must be addressed as vigorously as other hate. That silence isn’t an answer because, as Camhi said, “[n]ot saying anything, is saying everything.”
