Adidas apologizes for distasteful caricature of Dwayne Bravo

Sports manufacturing giant Adidas’ idea to celebrate Dwayne Bravo’s magnificent achievement in T20 cricket brought some public outrage to them. The German MNC celebrated Bravo’s feat of achieving 300 wickets in T20 cricket with a caricature. The company posted the photo on its Twitter Account @adidascricket on Monday.

The picture, however, was judged as racist and faced a backlash from twitter users forcing Adidas to delete the picture and issue an immediate apology. The reason behind fans anger perhaps can be the portrayal of big teeth and lips.

The photo was retweeted several times with many objecting on the grounds that it was racist.

Nigel posted: “@adidascricket What’s the deal with this ugly caricature of @DJBravo47? It’s a stereotype of a long past era. Tasteless, tactless and crude.”

Another Twitter user, Rhoda said, “@adidascricket It is offensive and racist. Take it down.”

Chica added, “@adidascricket that caricature of Dwayne Bravo is very disrespectful. That’s how you see us all w/big teeth & nose? Disrespectful.”

A comment from Tenille said, “I was notified of that caricature last evening. I cannot even begin to express my level of disappointment in the @adidascricket team.”

Adidas responded by taking the post down and apologised in a follow-up post that said, “We see Bravo’s caricature has upset many. Apologies to those whose sentiments got hurt, this wasn’t intended. He’s our Champion.—#teamadidas”.

We see Bravo’s caricature has upset many. Apologies to those whose sentiments got hurt, this wasn’t intended. He's our Champion.—#teamadidas

— adidas Cricket (@adidascricket) April 12, 2016

With @DJBravo47, every match is a party! #teamadidas rockstar gets ready for his first game of the IPL 2016 tonight. pic.twitter.com/nTLwFIfzcX

— adidas Cricket (@adidascricket) April 11, 2016

Bravo commented on the post just before 10 o’clock this morning, saying, “Fans, thank you for bringing @adidascricket’s post to my attention. I will be responding soon.”

Fans, thank you for bringing @adidascricket's post to my attention. I will be responding soon.

— Dwayne DJ Bravo (@DJBravo47) April 12, 2016

Also, Read – Kane Williamson named Wisden cricketer of the year for 2015