Mia DeRouchey|Writer
December 9, 2022
Popular designer brand Balenciaga is facing huge backlash for a recent holiday ad campaign. The ad displayed toddlers showing off teddy bears dressed in what can only be explained as sexual “bondage” gear. (akumalmonkeysanctuary.com) A tweet calling out Balenciaga for this disturbing, pedophilic campaign went viral quickly after the ad dropped, forcing the brand to issue a very halfhearted apology for “any offense… caused”.
As if people are nothing more than “offended” by the sexualization of children for profit.
Balenciaga removed the advertising campaign from their website and admitted that the bears should not have been pictured with children, confirming that the toys were intended to have a sexual implication.
The ad sparked distrust from Balenciaga’s customers, and followers of the brand began to do some investigating. They unearthed another recent ad, the background of which shows a document of United States v. Williams, a case centering around child abuse. Furthermore, the page shown talks about Ashcroft v. Speech Coalition, which eliminated a section of the Child Pornography Prevention Act in 2002. A detail so subtle verified customers’ fears: there was no chance this was an accident.
Balenciaga is suing the production company responsible for these ads, North Six, for 25 million US dollars. But is this merely a panicked response to the steady backlash the formerly prestigious brand has been getting in the past weeks? “There’s no way that at least 10 different managers didn’t look at those pictures and say ‘yeah, looks great!’ it just doesn’t add up,” San Clemente High School senior Nora Thorlakson said.
These apologies and assurances are not enough. With the amount of screening that brands go through before an advertisement goes public, there is no chance that something as wrong as this just “slipped through the cracks”. The release of the Gift Shop line was intentional and Balenciaga must be held accountable for this error in judgment.
That accountability will start with celebrities.
Well-known singers, actresses, and public personalities tend to love Balenciaga. They stud red carpets everywhere, their publicity skyrocketing after Kim Kardashian’s iconic masked look at the 2021Met Gala. The company recently offered Kardashian a sizable brand deal, but the perpetually-problematic businesswoman is reportedly “re-evaluating [her] relationship” with the brand after recent events. “She would be losing a lot of money, but everyone is going to cancel her if she doesn’t cut them out,” senior Sam Sherreitt said. Will Kardashian be able to look beyond the money to the moral questions arising from loyal Balenciaga customers?
That may be wishful thinking.
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