Culture Bites: Was adidas right to axe Bella Hadid from its SL72 campaign?

In this week's episode of Culture Bites, hosts Farah Andrews and Maan Jalal highlight some of their top picks from this year’s Primetime Emmy Awards nominations. With Shogun and The Bear leading the race, the hype has officially begun ahead of the awards ceremony taking place on September 15.

To mark the death of Iranian contemporary artist Farhad Moshiri, Maan and Farah pay tribute to the creative often described as the Middle East's Andy Warhol. They reflect on his artistic philosophy of “looking for the undiscovered” and on his pop art-inspired style. Moshiri, who was represented by Third Line Gallery in Dubai, died aged 61.

The hosts also discuss the controversy surrounding adidas axing Bella Hadid from a recent SL72 trainers campaign. The shoes were created to pay tribute to the 1972 Munich Olympics. Adidas dropped Hadid after receiving public backlash for featuring a half-Palestinian model in a campaign linked to the Olympic Games, in which 11 Israeli athletes and a coach were killed by a Palestinian militant group. The hosts question the role that brands are expected to play in the face of mounting political pressure.