Adidas AI campaign derailed by antisemitic tweets

By

Robin Driver

Published
Jul 3, 2019

A social media campaign allowing fans to personalise photos of Arsenal football shirts via Adidas’ UK account backfired on Monday when the AI behind the activation began tweeting offensive messages.
 

Meant to celebrate the launch of the German sportswear brand’s new kit for the London-based soccer team, the campaign invited Twitter users to tweet the hashtag “#DareToCreate”. The Adidas UK account then used artificial intelligence to post pictures of the users’ Twitter handles virtually added to the backs of Arsenal football shirts. The personalised shirts could be purchased by following a link included in the tweet.

Unfortunately for Adidas, however, the campaign soon attracted tweets from users with antisemitic handles such as “@GasAllJewss” and “@InnocentHitler,” as well as other offensive user names including “@96wasnotenough” – a reference to 1989’s Hillsborough disaster, where 96 people were crushed to death in a football stadium in Sheffield – and “@MadelineMcCann,” the name of a British child who disappeared in Portugal in 2007.

The Adidas UK Twitter account duly posted these messages for its over 800,000 followers to see before the campaign was swiftly suspended.
 
“As part of our partnership launch with Arsenal we have been made aware of the abuse of a Twitter personalisation mechanic created to allow excited fans to get their name on the back of the new jersey,” said an Adidas spokesperson to CNBC on Tuesday. “Due to a small minority creating offensive versions of this, we have immediately turned off the functionality. We are in contact with Twitter, the innovation provider, to establish the cause and ensure they continue to monitor and act on violating content as a matter of urgency.”
 
The offensive tweets have since been deleted from the Adidas UK Twitter account.