President Trump created a stir amid his political opposition when he was reported to have told French first-lady Brigitte Macron: “you’re in such great shape“. Apparently, according to the ever-pliable rules of the virtue signaling political left, it is “sexist” to compliment a woman on her physical appearance.

Of course it didn’t take more than a news cycle for yet another corporate entity to jump head-first into the opportunity to attach their own brand-image to anti-Trumpism. [Adidas is the parent company of Reebok] The hypocrisy behind this opportunistic marketing endeavor/virtue-signaling is stunning. Here’s the tweet from Reebok:

(link)

As you can see, Adidas/Reebok have made a political decision. Virtue signaling your superiority in defining what is/isn’t appropriate is never a good look.

You would think the loss of brand value for companies who previously did this (Macys, Starbucks etc) would be enough to stop any reasonable corporate marketing head with a fiduciary responsibility. Alas, the allure of scoring cheap political points finds another victim.

However, when contrast against the actual marketing image of Reebok, the outcome is even worse.

Reebok is specifically stating that complimenting a woman based on her appearance is “sexist” and “inappropriate”.

Sexism?

Inappropriate?

OK, well let’s check out the latest Reebok commercial (WATCH):

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Or how about the print advertising for Reebok:

Oh, these are only the PG-13 versions. There’s full naked female imagery within the European Reebok AD campaign.

Somehow using a woman’s physical shape to create a marketing brand is ok. But pointing out a woman’s physical shape, born out the success of applying that marketing brand approach as an outcome, is… well, “inappropriate”.

Tell a man he’s in great shape and it’s no big deal; no-one would even think twice of it.

Tell a woman she’s in great shape and it’s an immediate crisis.

Yeah. Gender equity. Huh?

Anticipate a diminished brand value to Adidas and Reebok as an outcome. Financially position yourselves accordingly…