The Internet Angered By Balenciaga's 'Child Abuse' and 'BDSM' Advertising Campaign

06/12/2022

Brands can do just about anything to market their products.

From creating advertisements to collaborating with celebrities and other brands, the list goes on. But sometimes, things can go a little bit too far.

Balenciaga is a luxury fashion house founded in 1919 by the Spanish designer Cristóbal Balenciaga in Spain. The brand produces ready-to-wear, footwear, handbags, and accessories, and has since been owned by a French corporation.

And this time, the company is under fire and heavy criticism for its controversial holiday ad campaign.

This happened when Balenciaga featured children posing with teddy bears wearing what appears to be BDSM-inspired accessories in their ads.

Balenciaga controversial ad
Balenciaga controversial ad

It didn't take long until the internet is angered.

They started creating a number of hashtags, including #Balenciaga, #BalenciagaGate, #Balenciagate, #BalenciagaGroomers, #BalenciagaPedofilia, #BalenciagaIsOver, and some more.

A number of celebrities and influencers have also spoken out against the company, with many of them seemingly dumping their Balenciaga items.

For example, country singer Jason Aldean’s wife, Brittany Aldean, posted a photo of herself disposing a number of Balenciaga items as trash.

Former Bachelor Arie Luyendyk Jr. and his wife, Lauren Burnham, also posted an Instagram video of them lighting their Balenciaga sneakers on fire.

"Bye Balenciaga," the couple said in a caption in the video.

Kim Kardashian, who frequently collaborates with the brand, remained quiet for a few days, before saying that she was "re-evaluating" her relationship with Balenciaga.

"As a mother of four, I have been shaken by the disturbing images," she wrote in part.

"The safety of children must be held with the highest regard and any attempts to normalize child abuse of any kind should have no place in our society — period."

It's worth noting here, that months before this, Kardashian's ex-husband, Kanye West, was dumped by Balenciaga following his anti-Semitic comments on Twitter.

Many celebrities who have been tied to Balenciaga, or at least have been seen using its products, are being urged by their fans on social media to dump their Balenciaga items altogether.

Nicole Kidman is one of those people. Many of her fans started asking her to cut ties with the brand.

It's worth noting though, it may not seem that some of the high-profile celebrities don't know about the issue. It's just that they are keeping quiet on the ad in order to maintain their "currency" within the fashion world.

Then it was on December 2, that Balenciaga's creative director, Demna Gvasalia, issued an apology, taking responsibility for the "inappropriate" concept for the "Balenciaga Gift Shop" campaign.

On Instagram, he said that:

"I want to personally apologize for the wrong artistic choice of concept for the gifting campaign with the kids and I take my responsibility. It was inappropriate to have kids promote objects that had nothing to do with them."

"As much as I would sometimes like to provoke a thought through my work, I would NEVER have an intention to do that with such an awful subject as child abuse that I condemn. Period."

Gvasalia said he needs to learn from the incident, "listen and engage with child protection organizations" so he can "help on this terrible subject."

He also apologized to anyone who was offended by the visuals.

"Balenciaga has guaranteed that adequate measures will be taken not only to avoid similar mistakes in the future but also to take accountability in protecting child welfare in every way we can," Gvasalia concluded.

Balenciaga also made a formal apology on Instagram:

Cédric Charbit, the President and CEO of Balenciaga, stated that the company is taking "actions with the objective to learn" from their mistakes.

"Our current process for content validation has failed, and we recognize the need to do better," the executive said. "On the internal side, we nominate with immediate effect an Image Board responsible for evaluating the nature of our content from concept to final assets, including Legal, Sustainability and Diversity expertise."

"On the external side, we have appointed a best-in-class agency to assess and evaluate our content," he continued, adding that they “want to learn, help and contribute to protect children."

Charbit also noted that his company has started trainings on "responsible communication" and will go on a "listening tour to engage with advocacy groups who aim to protect children."

And to show its compassion, the company is also donating and setting aside an undisclosed but “significant fund for grants to organizations so that we can help make a difference in protecting children."

“I want to personally reiterate my sincere apologies for the offense caused and take my responsibility. At Balenciaga, we stand together for children safety and do not tolerate any kind of violence and hatred message,” Charbit concluded.

Balenciaga “strongly condemn child abuse,” said it was never in the company's intention to include it in its narrative.

The photographer who shot the controversial Balenciaga ad featuring BDSM teddy bears modeled by children has also broken his silence.

Gabriele Galimberti also issued a statement on Instagram, and apologized.

"Following the hundreds of hate mails and messages I received as a result of the photos I took for the Balenciaga campaign, I feel compelled to make this statement," Galimberti wrote. "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 choose the products, nor the models, nor the combination of the same."

He noted that, the "direction of the campaign and the choice of the objects displayed" were beyond his control.

He was only permitted to light the prepared scene and shoot in his "signature style," and that's it.

"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," he said.

It's also worth noting that Balenciaga is dropping its $25 million lawsuit against the producers of the widely maligned ad campaign.

The fashion house filed the suit a week earlier against a production company and set designer after its spring 2023 campaign included documents from a Supreme Court case about child pornography.