Two Colors, Which Are Not What They Seem, Cause Controversy & Multi-Million Damage
FC Roma withdraws from sale a tracksuit with a “blue” insert and suspends its marketing director
As former Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin used to say, “We wanted the best, but it turned out as usual.” The same thing is happening in Italy, more specifically in Rome, and to be 100% accurate, at Roma football club. The two colors, white and blue, which are actually neither white nor blue, caused a storm of controversy and criticism among fans and threatened to ruin the relationship between Roma and Adidas, eventually costing the position of the top manager, the marketing director of Roma football club, Michael Vandella, against whom a disciplinary case has also been brought.
At the center of the scandal was the new tracksuit, which immediately after the presentation caused sharp criticism from fans, for whom the design of the novelty, or rather the combination of colors – a large blue insert under the white stripe – reminded the colors of their main rival, “biancocelesti” Lazio.
In just a few hours, an online petition calling for the criticized tracksuit to be banned garnered several thousand signatures.
The tracksuit was part of the official production for the 2024/2025 season and was only sold for the “junior” line dedicated to children and teens.
The very clear explanation, circulated by an Adidas representative that “the colors considered were not the white and light blue, but the cream and turquoise green present in the famous fresco in the densely populated Pyramid area of Rome, to which the project referred,” proved unhelpful. The mural was created by renowned Milanese artist Iena Cruz, who has made a name for herself in New York, Miami, Barcelona, and Mexico City. The mural is called “Hunting Pollution” and is about very topical issues, such as protecting the environment and fighting climate change. The mural was made of a material that can absorb toxic particles in the air. “Hunting Pollution” introduces the tricolored heron, an endangered species struggling to survive. The unsuspecting heron in Iena Cruz’s drawing catches its prey in a heavily polluted sea.
All in vain: to put an end to the controversy, Roma football club announced that it was withdrawing the tracksuit from sale.
