Balenciaga: Fashion House Apologizes for Ads Showing Fetish Babies and Teddy Bears – 11/28/2022
3 min read
Spanish fashion house Balenciaga has come under fire for a series of photos showing child models wearing the brand’s teddy bear bags.
The problem is that bears wore leather bracelets and collars associated with fetishism and shock masochism.
The images were released as part of an advertising campaign for the brand’s new product line.
Balenciaga pulled the images from circulation and said it would “take action” on the campaign. Understand the controversy.
Pictures
Balenciaga is one of the most prized brands in fashion and its luxury products are the darlings of celebrities and influencers alike.
But the photos from two of his recent campaigns are eliciting very negative reactions from the public.
The first was a series of photos showing child models posing with the company’s lavish backpacks.
These teddy bear-inspired accessories look like toys — but use leather collars and other fetish-related items.
Two pictures showed children hugging backpacks.
Critics then focused on an image from a separate previous campaign promoting the brand’s collaboration with Adidas.
One of the photos showed a bag on top of some documents. When People zoomed in on the text, it revealed that the papers were from a US Supreme Court ruling regarding inappropriate images of children.
reaction
Balenciaga began posting the photos to his social media on November 16.
They began to become popular, especially in the United States, among users who objected to what they saw as pedophilia.
As the criticism mounted, one of YouTuber June Nicole Lapine’s critical posts gained a lot of traction, and Balenciaga deleted all of the photos shortly thereafter.
Subsequently, some right-wing TV channels in the United States broke the story and accused the brand of “endorsing child pornography”.
The accusation fueled the collaboration campaign with Adidas, which had photos of documents about the child pornography experience on the Internet.
excuses
Balenciaga posted an apology to her 14 million followers on Instagram and said her plush bags “should not have been photographed with children.”
The brand said it has removed the sale items and deleted the images from all web platforms.
Balenciaga also apologized for displaying “disturbing documents” in the Adidas collaborative campaign.
Photographer Gabriele Gallimberti – who captured the campaign’s photos with the plush bags – also issued a statement saying the idea was to emulate the Toy Stories series, which featured images of children from around the world posing as their favorite objects.
He told his followers that he had no control over the models or products used in Balenciaga’s photos and indicated they weren’t explicit.
Gallimberti also confirmed that he was not associated with the previous campaign with Adidas.
Balenciaga said she was “taking legal action” against the people she hired to produce the photos for including “unauthorized elements”.
Kim Kardashian wears items from the brand quite frequently
Photo: Getty Images
Kim Kardashian’s response
Kim Kardashian has also been criticized for the photos – or rather, for being silent about them.
business woman big success She’s a brand ambassador and regular campaigns with Balenciaga, but she didn’t comment on the scandal as of Sunday.
Kardashian said she was “shaken by the disturbing images” and said that “any attempt to normalize child abuse of any kind should have no place in our society.”
She said her silence was not out of disgust and anger, but because she wanted to speak with Balenciaga to understand “how something like that could happen.”
She praised the brand for removing the campaigns and apologizing, and said she was “re-evaluating” her relationship with the company.
But he said he believes the brand understands the seriousness of the issue and will take steps to ensure it “never happens again”.
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