Balenciaga accused of inciting child abuse in advertising campaign photos

The most recent controversy involving the luxury brand Balenciaga has reached major proportions and could even cost its contracts with important fashion names, such as Kim Kardashian. The brand was heavily criticized due to an advertising campaign in which children appear with sexual accessories. In other advertising images, a bag from the brand appears on top of documents printed with excerpts from a United States Supreme Court decision on child pornography.

Photos from Balenciaga's Spring/Summer 2023 campaign have been deleted from social media. Furthermore, the brand published a statement on Monday afternoon (28) saying that it condemns child abuse: “It was never our intention to include this in our narrative. The two advertising campaigns in question reflect a series of serious errors for which Balenciaga accepts responsibility.”

ADVERTISING

The brand also says that it was a “wrong choice” to present the teddy bear bags with sexual fetish paraphernalia next to children. Regarding the documents that appeared in other photos, Balenciaga says they were provided by third parties and likely came from TV recordings. The note ends with the internal measures that Balenciaga will take following the repercussions of the case.

Relationship with influencers and artists

Much of the new repercussion came from Kim Kardashian. On Sunday (27), the businesswoman stated that she is “reevaluating” her relationship with the luxury brand.

“I have remained silent over the past few days, not because I wasn’t disgusted and outraged by Balenciaga’s recent campaigns, but because I wanted an opportunity to speak to their team to understand for myself how this could have happened,” she wrote on Twitter.

ADVERTISING

Read also

Scroll up