Content warning: Mentions of child pornography
Balenciaga, a luxury fashion brand, is experiencing backlash for its November holiday campaign, which showcased two different ads of little girls holding teddy bears. This may sound innocent, but just wait until you hear what the teddy bears were wearing — bondage and BDSM gear.
Even after the ads were redacted, outraged consumers continued to claim that the campaign promoted child pornography and abuse. While the children were dressed in appropriate clothing, the teddy bears they held wore fish nets, cuffs, harnesses and collars. In one of the images, the child was also surrounded by wine glasses, along with multiple other items that are not considered to be very kid-friendly.
Responses to the campaign included disgust and rage. Parents especially criticized the brand and couldn’t understand how the ads were approved in the first place. The campaign was huge, meaning that it must have been viewed, edited and critiqued by several Balenciaga executives prior to promotion. Hence, it’s difficult to believe that the inappropriate ads were the result of some innocent mistake.
Fueled by rage, some consumers went so far as to burn any clothes, shoes or other products they owned from Balenciaga. Protests have also ensued outside different Balenciaga stores, including the one in Los Angeles.
On Twitter and TikTok, hashtags such as #Balenciagagate and #CancelBalenciaga are trending. Frustrated consumers are taking to the platforms to express their anger, and some have mentioned that, unfortunately, this is not the first or only incident that paints the company in a bad light.
Several past Balenciaga campaigns have (rightfully) received public backlash as well. Another recent ad by the brand featured documents related to child pornography under a Balenciaga purse. Specifically, the papers mentioned United States v. Williams, a Supreme Court case from 2008 that discussed free speech and virtual child pornography. A source claimed that one document in the ad apparently included an excerpt from Justice Antonin Scalia, who stated that virtual child pornography is not prohibited under federal law. In response to this controversial campaign, Balenciaga filed a $25 million lawsuit against the ad’s producers. The brand claimed that it didn’t know the documents were going to be included in the ad. A few days later, however, Balenciaga executives decided not to follow through with the lawsuit, which suggests that they knew what they were doing when they published the ad.
The vulgarity of both ad campaigns left many fans of the brand furious. Even Kim Kardashian, who is known for wearing the brand from head to toe, tweeted that she was disappointed with Balenciaga and disgusted by the ads. However, Kardashian has not publicly cut ties with the brand and is instead “re-evaluating” their relationship.
Balenciaga also issued a statement to make amends. On its Instagram page, which currently only has one post, the brand shared its plans to make internal and external changes to learn from its mistakes. Furthermore, Demna Gvasalia, a designer for the brand and the creative director of the controversial ads, has posted his own personal apology.
Nevertheless, the public seems unwilling to accept their apologies. If the ad were a one-off incident, then the public would likely be more forgiving. However, Balenciaga’s controversial actions have become commonplace. In response to Kardashian’s apologetic tweet, a user posted a video in which they insisted that something bigger was going on. Garnering over a million views, the user’s video also explored some of Balenciaga’s other, lesser-known ads. The Twitter user explained their take on the ads’ symbolism, deeming them to be demonic.
The Balenciaga scandal has spurred a great deal of misinformation, as well as edited pictures. One image depicts previous Balenciaga designer Lotta Volkova wearing a red garment and holding two dolls that are painted red to imitate blood. Fact checks revealed that this photo isn’t of Volkova, who hasn’t worked with the brand since 2018. A Buzzfeed contributor addressed the conspiracy theories, discussing that some of the supposed symbolism of Balenciaga can be misinterpreted. They also debunked several of the scandal’s most popular theories and explained that people only see what they want to see.
Nevertheless, child exploitation is a pressing issue, especially when it comes to social media. As the years pass by, society will inevitably become more tech-savvy with the releases of new innovations. This could be for the better, but it may be for the worse. Sex traffickers can utilize social media to contact, recruit and sell children; our changed world poses new dangers for adolescents. The exploitation of children is wrong, and Balenciaga deserves its fair share of scrutiny.
