Luxury fashion brand Balenciaga has been criticized for launching its latest advertising campaign. The images, which appeared on the brand’s website and social media but have since been removed, show children with teddy bears in bondage clothing. In addition, there are gruesome details hidden in the photos.
The photos of the minor children were part of a larger collection of photos that appeared on the Instagram page of the brand since November 16. One image shows a little girl wearing a T-shirt from the brand, holding a belt attached to a white stuffed bear with what is known as a padlock choker chain. In another photo, a girl is holding a purple stuffed animal, which appears to be wearing bdsm clothing.
Many people criticize the fashion brand on Twitter. “Frightening how many adults must have been involved,” one person writes. parents, photographers, creative directors, copywriters, employees of design agencies, producers, managers, advertisers… and none of them thought: wait a minute?’ it continues. Someone else tweeted: “Typical Balenciaga. They want to shock to get attention for their overpriced crap. It almost seems like a social experiment.’
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Sexual abuse
Not only the photos of the girls caused amazement. Other photos turned out to hide gruesome details. At the bottom of the website was a picture of the ‘Hourglass Bag‘, with a stack of papers underneath. One of those papers was a court document referring to the Ashcroft vs Free Speech Coalition lawsuit, the lawsuit that made virtual/fake images and videos of child sexual abuse legal in the United States.
The Free A Girl Netherlands Foundation is shocked by the campaign and calls on De Bijenkorf, the department store that sells stuff from the brand in the Netherlands, to boycott Balenciaga in the comments. Free A Girl’s statement reads: ‘The multi-billion dollar Balenciaga brand contributes to the sexual glorification of young children. This is not a ‘edgy‘-pr. This is terrible and worrying. This is criminal.’
Balenciaga released a statement on Instagram today after all the criticism: “We sincerely apologize for any offense our holiday campaign may have caused. Our’Plush Bear Bagsshould not have been presented with children in this campaign. We immediately removed the campaign from all platforms.” The photos have since been removed and it is no longer possible to comment on other content from the brand.
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Tags: Fashion brand Balenciaga removes photos girls bondage bears baking criticism show
