A high-end luxury fashion brand is under fire for its latest ad campaign that featured children in highly sexualized scenes.
Balenciaga, a Spanish fashion house founded in 1919, drew strong condemnation for its depiction of two extremely young girls in a recent print ad campaign for its Spring/Summer 2023 collection. Both children are seen clad in Balenciaga apparel clutching teddy bears in recognizable BDSM gear.
BDSM — short for bondage, domination, and sadomasochism — refers to a broad-ranging set of sexual fetishes that typically feature some element of physical restraint, control, submission, and pain.
Also worth highlighting is the surroundings in which these two children were placed. One young girl grips her teddy bear while standing atop a couch in what appears to be a playroom.
On a coffee table in front of her are numerous wine glasses, a flask, and a beer stein. Another teddy bear in BDSM gear sits on an end table to her right.
The other photo featuring a young girl is set in a bedroom. The child stands atop a bed featuring an array of chains and straps, including a leash with a collar and a flask. Similarly, she grips a teddy bear in BDSM gear while another is placed to her right.
In a separate photo, Balenciaga also featured one of its handbags atop a cluttered desk. Some of the documents in the photo contained excerpts from a 2008 United States Supreme Court decision which held that a broad federal statute prohibiting the offering or requesting of child pornography was not unconstitutional.
Outrage against the ads was swift.
“Here you have a major international retail brand promoting kiddie porn and sex with children and not promoting it subtly, but right out in the open,” remarked Tucker Carlson.
“No healthy society can tolerate that, and in fact, none ever have tolerated it. There’s never been a time in American history where pedophilia was considered anything other than the worst thing, the most horrifying crime imaginable,” Carlson concluded.
Balenciaga quickly issued a public statement and immediately terminated the ad campaign.
“We sincerely apologize for any offense our holiday campaign may have caused,” the fashion brand posted on Instagram. “Our plush bear bags should not have been featured with children in this campaign. We have immediately removed the campaign from all platforms.”
In an Instagram post, the company also apologized “for displaying unsettling documents in our campaign” and pointed fingers at the ad’s photographer for the uproar surrounding the Supreme Court case documents.
Balenciaga went further to claim it is “taking legal action against the parties responsible for creating the set and including unapproved items for our Spring 23 campaign photoshoot.”
However, the campaign’s photographer, Gabriele Galimberti, has pushed back against the notion that he is to blame.
“I am not in a position to comment [on] Balenciaga’s choices, but I must stress that I was not entitled in whatsoever manner to neither chose (sic) the products, nor the models, nor the combination of the same,” Galimberti remarked.
Balenciaga has since made good on its promise to pursue legal action, suing production company North Six Inc. and set designer Nicholas Des Jardins and his company for $25 million in damages “to seek redress for extensive damages defendants caused in connection with an advertising campaign Balenciaga hired them to produce.”
Neither North Six nor Des Jardins has responded to a request for comment on the suit.